Matrox Acquired by Co-Founder
by Anton Shilov on September 11, 2019 10:30 AM EST
Matrox on Monday announced that Lorne Trottier, a co-founder of Matrox, has acquired 100% ownership of the Matrox group of companies, which includes three divisions: Matrox Imaging, Matrox Graphics, and Matrox Video.
Founded in 1976 by Lorne Trottier and Branko Matić, Matrox may not be a widely-known name among the PC crowd these days as it has been years since the company released its own GPU and essentially quit the market of consumer graphics cards. Back in the day, Matrox’s Parhelia and Millennium G400/G450/G550 graphics cards provided superior 2D image quality (something that was very important back in the CRT era), but failed to offer competitive performance in 3D games. This failure led the company to leave the market of consumer graphics cards and focus on niche markets instead. Back in 2014 Matrox officially ceased to design its own graphics processor IP and has been using AMD’s Radeon GPUs coupled with its renowned software since then.
In fact, when it comes to multi-display graphics cards and other graphics solutions for various purposes as well as for specialized niche solutions for video and imaging applications, Matrox has rather unique offerings. Serving aerospace, broadcast, financial, cinematography, digital signage, and other industries, Matrox almost certainly earns good profit margins.
It is hard to say how change of the ownership will affect product development and roadmap of Matrox, but usually such changes focuse the companies on their key products, which enables growth.
Since Matrox has always been a privately held company, financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Here is what Lorne Trottier had to say:
“This next phase represents a renewed commitment to our valued customers, suppliers, and business partners, as well as to our 700 dedicated employees worldwide. At Matrox, our culture is defined by our passion for technological innovation and product development. We maintain the highest degree of corporate responsibility vis-a-vis production quality and industry standards. I am extremely proud of our accomplishments over our 40-plus-year history and would like to thank my co-founder for his contributions.”
He added:
“I look forward to championing a corporate culture defined by forward-thinking business practices, transparency, and teamwork. I am excited to lead this great organization as we implement growth initiatives. Matrox is a great Canadian success story. We owe this success and our bright prospects to the talented and dedicated people at all levels of this organization.”
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Source: Matrox
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vladx - Wednesday, September 11, 2019 - link
That's really good news, founders of a company usually follow the best interests of a company.fred666 - Wednesday, September 11, 2019 - link
I remember working there as an intern. Was a great company.I wish them good luck for the future.
twtech - Wednesday, September 11, 2019 - link
I remember replacing the nVidia RIVA TNT that came with a new PC I bought in the 90s with a Matrox Millenium because it offered better 2D performance and image quality in the online games I was playing at the time.StevoLincolnite - Wednesday, September 11, 2019 - link
Would be good if they returned to making gaming cards... With Intel entering the discreet market, S3 floundering after their "Chrome" efforts... Would be good to have a 4th player.GreenReaper - Wednesday, September 11, 2019 - link
Still using their MGA-G200 engine in my HP MicroServer. Servers don't need much.(I have it running a 1280x1024 screen at 75Hz, and in theory it could do a little more.)
MASSAMKULABOX - Monday, September 16, 2019 - link
Microservers give out a pretty good display natively .. ?sing_electric - Thursday, September 12, 2019 - link
Digital video killed the 2D performance star... almost. I'm amazed Matrox has been able to stick around as long as it has, and I hope they find a niche that works.It's crazy to think, but 20 years ago, video card reviews focused as much on image quality as they did performance... because there really were huge differences.
Foeketijn - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
I supported Matrox with all the HP Microservers Gen8. It's a shame that after 5 years it is still the best microserver.There was a brief moment where martox was interesting in a normal computer. Just before the ATI 8500 and Nvidia Gefore4 where the ATI was almost as good and the Nvidia even better then the matrox in 2D (their only USP). The Matrox Parhelia could have been a real player if the G400/450/550 didn't make everybody forget the whole company.
CaedenV - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
Man... my first 'real computer build' was a Pentium 3 1GHz that has a G550 and RT2500That thing was a video editing beast, with 2 20" flat-front Trinatron monitors, and a TV for real time output.
I was so excited about their Parhelia series chips which promised to bring some of the best of 2D graphics combined with the best of 3D graphics (with even the ability to play games in your off-time!). But sadly it never really shaped up. The 2D was certainly there, but the 3D was still lacking while nVidia already had great 3D and was catching up on 2D support. Left and never looked back... but it would be neat to have a 3rd (4th including Intel next year?) contender in the space.
rklaver - Thursday, September 19, 2019 - link
LOL, those 20" Trinitrons. At the time I owned one it was the heaviest thing I owned. Moving a couch out of my apartment was easier than moving that thing.