Red future Buy out?

Steve Shovlar

Steve Shovlar

DVXuser Sponsor
With Red coming in at such a low price compared to the opposition, there must be some very worried folks out there.

Why buy a varicam or cinealta when you can get better resolution with the Red for far less money?

Panasonic and Sony must be watching the Red's development with a very keen eye. So what will they do about it? Once launched both companies will see the sales of their top end cameras fall. Leading me to think that they just won't accept it.

So will either company stump up a massive wad of cash to buy out Red from Jim Jannard, thus killing this dead in its tracks, and burying it for the foreseeable future?

I think Sony and Panasonic would pay handsomely to see Red gone. Will Jim take a big offer, or continue with Red all the way?
 
Jim isnt into this just for the money. Its his passion. I dont see somebody selling his/her passion for money. Doesnt sound right.
 
No Jim wont sale the company. Maybe he will move more into the background as the cairman or something and other people will do the day to day stuff. But I think this is Jim's baby and there is no way in hell he would give it up to the slouter.

I do think Jim will take the company public and personaly I can't wait I would love to buy some stock options
 
All I can see out of all of this is that it is going to cause the other companies to look at what they are offering and take a seriously hard look at how they are going to compete. Remember, competetion always benefits the end user (us) so the Red camera is really more benficial then just being the all time best camera ever :).
 
I think that given the nature of Red's introduction to the general community via spefic forums such as this Jim would do himself a huge disservice if he sold the company especially if no one received a camera... the fact is that people have invested money and faith in the project and to let them down would have an impact on Jim personally and perhaps even Oakley. If there was any intention to sell this company I very much doubt that Jim would put his name so heavily into this let alone make the link between Oakley and Red.

Personally I believe that Jim is someone in a unique opportunity because of his success and wealth from Oakley and rather than look at making more money he is perhaps more concerned about leaving a legacy... I would love to be in his position and have the ability to turn the film world on its axis. I have a great respect for what he is doing because there aren't many wealthy people that care for making a difference over making a buck.
 
RED is not for sale. BTW, there are no other investors in RED. But a few people have put their careers on the line. That matters to me.

Jim
 
Jannard said:
RED is not for sale. BTW, there are no other investors in RED. But a few people have put their careers on the line. That matters to me.

Jim
Click to expand...
And there you go. :)
 
Steve Shovlar said:
Why buy a varicam or cinealta when you can get better resolution with the Red for far less money?
Click to expand...
Resolution is only one factor. Compatibility, service networks, the fact that both the VariCam and CineAlta include a recording format with them, an installed base of those recording formats already out there, there are lots of things that may make one consider something other than a Red.

But $100,000 for an F900 (body & deck only) vs. $17,500 for a Red (body only)? That's silly. Obviously if the F900 and VariCam are to continue they're going to have to have some serious pricing adjustments.

Panasonic and Sony must be watching the Red's development with a very keen eye. So what will they do about it? Once launched both companies will see the sales of their top end cameras fall. Leading me to think that they just won't accept it.
Click to expand...
Competition is competition. They'll either adapt, and respond, or lose out. For Sony's part they just announced a new NGC-23 (or whatever it's called), for $200,000. But keep in mind, that includes an HDCAM-SR recording deck in it (I believe; I'm actually sketchy on it because I really don't care :grin: )


So will either company stump up a massive wad of cash to buy out Red from Jim Jannard, thus killing this dead in its tracks, and burying it for the foreseeable future?
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People don't typically buy companies to "bury them". If the product is so much better, they'll buy the company and then sell that product. They'd be buying a revenue stream. But, as has been said, the Red Digital Cinema Camera Company is not going to be for sale.

Sony or Panasonic may, however, dump a load of money into Kinetta or Dalsa or something else and come up with a competing product. Or, who knows, maybe Red is doing something so different and once they see what it is, they'll realize they can do it too, and they'll come out with competing product. They do have rather large R&D staffs after all.

Business is business, and these folks have been in business for a long, long time. They'll figure out what they need to do. One thing's for sure -- they can't ignore it.
 
Anyway... this thread is about a pointless as they go.

Jim didn't get into this for the money (I believe I've read somewhere that he's got things covered in that department...). To me he's more than proven that he's genuinely working his nuts off to get a kick-*ss camera out there at a revolutionary pricepoint. Not necessary for the masses, but accessible to most professionals.

So can we get back to useful discussions of what we'd like to see in RED? And not waste Jims and our time on this anymore.
 
"Why buy a varicam or cinealta when you can get better resolution with the Red for far less money"

we all know why we aren't buying vari or cinealta's ...

if your current clients are vari-cinealta's types then one would consider buying that product .. based on TODAY there is not a RED camera so Vari-cineAlta, viper is your choice ...
till RED starts selling camera's i would think most manufacturer's are trying to figure who is going to be buying RED , how is it going to affect their current camera line , and is there enough of a market there to make $$$ = they are not going to bring out a camera to not make $$$$ ...

sony, panasonic make video camera's .. yes they are trying for film look but they are sticking with HD because that is their base market. they all started in TV and now HD =that is what they are offering ...

what really suprised me was that arri & panavision have 35mm size sensors digital camera's and they output HD !! so is that protecting their film camera's sales/rentals ??? guessing Arri will have to respond with something more then HD .. panavision ? might be better off offering a pana-red camera for rent vs. spending R&D $$ ..
 
Not everyone wants a tapeless workflow, so Sony and Panasonic will still have customers.

They will have to rethink their pricing structure of course, but then they must have known that eventually the price drops would happen. The pro market is such that prices stay higher longer just because they could.

Panasonic needs to release some serious P2 storage for an affordable price, like say 100 Gigs for $100. Same with Sony.
 
Barry_Green said:
both the VariCam and CineAlta include a recording format with them,

Sony or Panasonic may, however, dump a load of money into Kinetta or Dalsa or something else and come up with a competing product.
Click to expand...

Kinetta? i assume you are joking.. talk about taking a step in the wrong direction ha ha ha.

I can see them getting in with Dalsa though... they actually have a camera, one they dont want to sell, so that is very viable.

And Red does have a recording format :)
 
No company is going to buy another to bury it ? Never heard of Cyborg ? That was a competitor to discreet flame / flint, but the company ( 5D ) had tax problems, went into insolvency, subsequentely was acquired by discreet and disappeared.
 
Barry has made a very good point. We're pretty much exclusively a Sony house, not because they make the best cameras but because they have the best support network. Not saying it's perfect either or cheap but we've only once had to send something back after repair with a 'please try harder' note.

Now assuming RED is being bought by those working at the pointy end of this game, service, maintenance and repair is a HUGE issue. Sony do it well, Panavision excel at this, it's quite normal for them to supply a Panavision tech on location to keep things running smoothly. And for the record, at least until recently Panasonic also provided pretty good support down here. Canon and JVC, well, enough said.

So perhaps it's time to ask how RED is going to handle this.
 
Not surprisingly, we plan to handle service a bit different than the others. We are not quite ready to discuss our plan. I learned a long time ago that a product can get you into a business, service keeps you there.

Jim
 
Fly out in the corporate jet if repairs are needed?! :D

I can see it now.... one of us here in Australia calls up the Red hotline citing a problem. Next thing you know Red One (the aircraft, not the camera) is airborne from the alert five ramp and flying southwest at near Mach 1, streaking through the aether for the sake of the indie filmmaker!!

Jim, you ROCK!!! :thumbsup:
 
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