Sonic Solutions was a computer software company headquartered in Novato, California. In addition to having a number of offices in the U.S., the company also maintained offices in Europe and Asia.
Sonic Solutions was created in 1986 by former Lucasfilm employees who developed the SoundDroid digital audio editing system as part of the Droidworks project. (Another notable spinoff of the project is Pixar.)
Sonic developed and marketed The Sonic System, a professional non-linear digital audio workstation for music editing, restoration and CD preparation.
Sonic's technology for professional audio noise reduction, NoNOISE, received an Emmy Award for technical achievement in 1996[1]. On the same year the company introduced the first commercial DVD production system in partnership with Daikin. Sonic extended its business to the areas of DVD authoring systems for professional use (Sonic Scenarist and Sonic DVD Producer) as well as retail and PC OEM DVD software applications for home use (DVDit, MyDVD, and RecordNow).
In 2002, Sonic spun off their entire audio division as Sonic Studio, LLC, to concentrate solely on the DVD marketplace.
Sonic’s major acquisitions include the Desktop and Mobile Division (DMD) of VERITAS Software Corporation in 2002, Roxio in 2003 (consumer applications for Windows and Mac OS), and Simple Star (online slideshow creation) and CinemaNow in 2008 (digital movie delivery).
In October 2010, the Company acquired DivX Inc. in a $326 million stock and cash deal as the digital-media provider moves to enhance online video offerings.[2][3]
On December 23, 2010, Rovi Corporation announced its intention to acquire the company for its DivX digital video player software.[4]. The acquisition was completed early the next year.
Sonic Solutions is the leader in digital media software, providing a broad range of independent software tools and applications for creative professionals, consumers, and technology partners. The company’s products range from professional DVD authoring systems used by Hollywood studios to create advanced, highly interactive blockbuster DVDs to intuitive, easy-to-use software for consumers who want to convert their personal data, home movies, photos, and music into high-quality DVDs and CDs.
Roxio, a division of Marin County, Calif.-based Sonic, is the world’s leading provider of consumer digital media creation applications. InterActual, a subsidiary of Sonic, provides technology and creative services to Hollywood, adding next-generation interactivity to DVD and high-definition content.
Sonic has been around almost 20 years, and in that time, Habiger said it has done a good job of finding, hiring, and maintaining the best and brightest engineers. Habiger’s strategy has been to not limit recruitment to any specific geographical location when looking for candidates.
As a result, Sonic has more than 700 employees spread throughout offices in a dozen countries. “If you want to hire the best possible people to work for you, they aren’t always going to be within a 100-mile radius of any given office,” said the chief executive. “They are going to be scattered around the globe.”
Sonic doesn’t have much capital expenditure as far as technology is concerned; instead, it invests in its people. Retention is extremely important for Sonic, so the company invests a lot of time and energy in each engineer. “This is a knowledge-based industry, and we’re a business that is based on skill sets,” Habiger said.
Habiger works to create an autonomous environment that encourages engineers to stay and contribute. “In an industry where you have software developers as the largest part of your organization, keeping them is important because software developers care about what they’re building and how they’re building it. The ultimate goal is to create products that our people are proud of,” he said.
Although Sonic provides training, Habiger feels that isn’t the most important factor in employee retention. The main idea, he said, is to keep engineers engaged and excited about what they’re doing as far as projects, products, and availability. “It’s my job to make sure all obstacles are removed so developers can do what they do best, which is develop code. Without the right environment, all the training in the world won’t keep your best and brightest from leaving.”
Habiger said when companies get to a certain size, it can be difficult to keep everyone focused. As companies grow, they run the risk of people not feeling like their contribution moves the needle. “At this stage, I know all of our employees play an important role in all our successes and failures, and I’m hoping they also see that.”
Rovi offers highly competitive benefits and perks to our employees. At Rovi, we value your hard work, and the incentives continue once you are on board. We continue to motivate, encourage and reward you for your efforts. Benefits and perks are an important part of the total compensation package.
U.S. Benefits
Our benefits are designed to be competitive in our industry based on local market practices, legal and statutory requirements. We pride ourselves on going beyond the industry benchmark.
Medical, Dental and Vision
Medical, dental, and vision insurance are provided to all full-time employees who work 30 or more hours per week. Insurance is also provided to their eligible dependents, if dependent coverage is elected. Domestic partner coverage is also available. Employees have a choice of medical coverage among Aetna PPO, Aetna HMO, and Kaiser Permanente (CA only). Dental and orthodontia coverage are provided through Principal Dental. Vision coverage is provided through VSP.
Full-time employees become eligible for medical, dental, and vision insurance benefits on their first day of employment. Employees working fewer than 30 hours per week on a regularly scheduled basis are not eligible for medical, dental, or vision insurance.
Flexible Spending Account / Section 125 Plan
This plan allows employees to pay for medical and dependent care expenses using pre-tax income, thus avoiding federal, state and social security taxes on those amounts. Employees may elect to contribute pre-tax dollars into the plan.
Health Reimbursement Account
Rovi contributes funds on the employee's behalf for use with medical expenses and/or deductibles on a prorated basis. The company contribution is prorated at 1/24th of the annual amount per pay period.
Life Insurance
Upon hire and after acceptance by the insurance carrier, employees are automatically enrolled in Rovi's Group Life Insurance plan. The policy provides a benefit of two times base annual earnings plus $15,000, up to a maximum of $515,000. The same coverage in benefits also apply for accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D).
Disability Insurance
Short-term: Benefits due to injury, illness or pregnancy are payable at an amount of 70 percent of weekly base earnings to a maximum of $3,464 per week, less any amounts received under state disability. Benefits begin on the 15th day of disability up to a maximum period of 11 weeks.
Long-term: Benefits due to illness or injury are payable at an amount of approximately 60 percent of base monthly earnings to a monthly maximum of $15,000. Benefits begin after completing a 90-day waiting period and continue as long as the employee remains disabled and requires the regular attendance of a physician, until age 65.
Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP)
Upon eligibility and enrollment in an Offering Period (24 months), this plan allows employees to purchase Rovi stock at two purchase dates per calendar year at a discounted rate. Contributions into the plan are made via a payroll deduction in an amount equal to between 1 percent and 20 percent of compensation (not to exceed $21,250 in any calendar year). The purchase price is 85 percent of the lesser of the fair market value of the Company's stock on the first day of the Offering Period or the last day of the same Purchase Period (six months), whichever is lower.
401(k)
This is a salary reduction plan which allows employees to reduce their compensation and have the amounts contributed into a savings plan, tax free, to accumulate for retirement. The contributions can be invested in a variety of methods of your choice.
The current matching contribution is 20 percent of the salary reduction. Matching funds are subject to a three-year vesting schedule and are allocated after the employee has worked 1,000 hours during the plan year based on IRS regulations.
Holidays
Rovi grants a minimum of eleven paid calendar holidays. Additionally, Employees will be granted one Floating Holiday. The Floating Holiday cannot be carried forward into the following year and is not convertible to cash.
Flexible Time Off (FTO)
Flexible Time Off accrues on the last day of each calendar month, beginning from the date of hire according to the schedule below. The accrual of FTO is prorated for the first month of employment if the start date is not the first working day of the month.
Credited Years of Service Years
FTO Earned
First through fourth years
4 weeks
Fifth year and following years
5 weeks
Perks
Educational Assistance
Rovi provides financial assistance in the continuing education of employees. Course work will be considered for approval and reimbursement if it is related to the employee's present or probable next position with Rovi, or if it is required as part of a program leading to a job-related degree. Reimbursement will be given to regular, full-time employees after completion of 90 days of employment. Employees enrolled in degree programs prior to their hire date are not eligible for tuition reimbursement for completion of their regular program, unless approved in writing at the time of hire.
Health Club Membership
In order to promote the health and well-being of its employees, Rovi reimburses one-half the cost of an annual health club membership at the club of the employee's choice, up to a total reimbursement of $300 per calendar year.
Bonus and Incentive Programs
Rovi offers a number of bonus and incentive programs to its employees to encourage and reward their efforts. These include an Annual Company Incentive Plan, Performance Bonuses, Special Recognition Awards, Patent Awards, and Referral Bonuses, to name just a few.
Sonic Solutions and all of its divisions are now a part of Rovi Corporation. Rovi will now be able to deliver an end-to-end solution that enables it's customers and consumers to create, discover, manage, acquire, share and enjoy digital entertainment. Sonic adds advanced technologies, from industry leading consumer tools like Roxio Creator and Toast, RoxioNow retail solution, to DivX and MainConcept video playback technology and Sonic Pro tools to the Rovi portfolio. These products complement Rovi guidance, content protection, networking, metadata, media recognition and recommendations technologies expanding the company's offering across the entire digital entertainment ecosystem.
Sonic Solutions was created in 1986 by former Lucasfilm employees who developed the SoundDroid digital audio editing system as part of the Droidworks project. (Another notable spinoff of the project is Pixar.)
Sonic developed and marketed The Sonic System, a professional non-linear digital audio workstation for music editing, restoration and CD preparation.
Sonic's technology for professional audio noise reduction, NoNOISE, received an Emmy Award for technical achievement in 1996[1]. On the same year the company introduced the first commercial DVD production system in partnership with Daikin. Sonic extended its business to the areas of DVD authoring systems for professional use (Sonic Scenarist and Sonic DVD Producer) as well as retail and PC OEM DVD software applications for home use (DVDit, MyDVD, and RecordNow).
In 2002, Sonic spun off their entire audio division as Sonic Studio, LLC, to concentrate solely on the DVD marketplace.
Sonic’s major acquisitions include the Desktop and Mobile Division (DMD) of VERITAS Software Corporation in 2002, Roxio in 2003 (consumer applications for Windows and Mac OS), and Simple Star (online slideshow creation) and CinemaNow in 2008 (digital movie delivery).
In October 2010, the Company acquired DivX Inc. in a $326 million stock and cash deal as the digital-media provider moves to enhance online video offerings.[2][3]
On December 23, 2010, Rovi Corporation announced its intention to acquire the company for its DivX digital video player software.[4]. The acquisition was completed early the next year.
Sonic Solutions is the leader in digital media software, providing a broad range of independent software tools and applications for creative professionals, consumers, and technology partners. The company’s products range from professional DVD authoring systems used by Hollywood studios to create advanced, highly interactive blockbuster DVDs to intuitive, easy-to-use software for consumers who want to convert their personal data, home movies, photos, and music into high-quality DVDs and CDs.
Roxio, a division of Marin County, Calif.-based Sonic, is the world’s leading provider of consumer digital media creation applications. InterActual, a subsidiary of Sonic, provides technology and creative services to Hollywood, adding next-generation interactivity to DVD and high-definition content.
Sonic has been around almost 20 years, and in that time, Habiger said it has done a good job of finding, hiring, and maintaining the best and brightest engineers. Habiger’s strategy has been to not limit recruitment to any specific geographical location when looking for candidates.
As a result, Sonic has more than 700 employees spread throughout offices in a dozen countries. “If you want to hire the best possible people to work for you, they aren’t always going to be within a 100-mile radius of any given office,” said the chief executive. “They are going to be scattered around the globe.”
Sonic doesn’t have much capital expenditure as far as technology is concerned; instead, it invests in its people. Retention is extremely important for Sonic, so the company invests a lot of time and energy in each engineer. “This is a knowledge-based industry, and we’re a business that is based on skill sets,” Habiger said.
Habiger works to create an autonomous environment that encourages engineers to stay and contribute. “In an industry where you have software developers as the largest part of your organization, keeping them is important because software developers care about what they’re building and how they’re building it. The ultimate goal is to create products that our people are proud of,” he said.
Although Sonic provides training, Habiger feels that isn’t the most important factor in employee retention. The main idea, he said, is to keep engineers engaged and excited about what they’re doing as far as projects, products, and availability. “It’s my job to make sure all obstacles are removed so developers can do what they do best, which is develop code. Without the right environment, all the training in the world won’t keep your best and brightest from leaving.”
Habiger said when companies get to a certain size, it can be difficult to keep everyone focused. As companies grow, they run the risk of people not feeling like their contribution moves the needle. “At this stage, I know all of our employees play an important role in all our successes and failures, and I’m hoping they also see that.”
Rovi offers highly competitive benefits and perks to our employees. At Rovi, we value your hard work, and the incentives continue once you are on board. We continue to motivate, encourage and reward you for your efforts. Benefits and perks are an important part of the total compensation package.
U.S. Benefits
Our benefits are designed to be competitive in our industry based on local market practices, legal and statutory requirements. We pride ourselves on going beyond the industry benchmark.
Medical, Dental and Vision
Medical, dental, and vision insurance are provided to all full-time employees who work 30 or more hours per week. Insurance is also provided to their eligible dependents, if dependent coverage is elected. Domestic partner coverage is also available. Employees have a choice of medical coverage among Aetna PPO, Aetna HMO, and Kaiser Permanente (CA only). Dental and orthodontia coverage are provided through Principal Dental. Vision coverage is provided through VSP.
Full-time employees become eligible for medical, dental, and vision insurance benefits on their first day of employment. Employees working fewer than 30 hours per week on a regularly scheduled basis are not eligible for medical, dental, or vision insurance.
Flexible Spending Account / Section 125 Plan
This plan allows employees to pay for medical and dependent care expenses using pre-tax income, thus avoiding federal, state and social security taxes on those amounts. Employees may elect to contribute pre-tax dollars into the plan.
Health Reimbursement Account
Rovi contributes funds on the employee's behalf for use with medical expenses and/or deductibles on a prorated basis. The company contribution is prorated at 1/24th of the annual amount per pay period.
Life Insurance
Upon hire and after acceptance by the insurance carrier, employees are automatically enrolled in Rovi's Group Life Insurance plan. The policy provides a benefit of two times base annual earnings plus $15,000, up to a maximum of $515,000. The same coverage in benefits also apply for accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D).
Disability Insurance
Short-term: Benefits due to injury, illness or pregnancy are payable at an amount of 70 percent of weekly base earnings to a maximum of $3,464 per week, less any amounts received under state disability. Benefits begin on the 15th day of disability up to a maximum period of 11 weeks.
Long-term: Benefits due to illness or injury are payable at an amount of approximately 60 percent of base monthly earnings to a monthly maximum of $15,000. Benefits begin after completing a 90-day waiting period and continue as long as the employee remains disabled and requires the regular attendance of a physician, until age 65.
Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP)
Upon eligibility and enrollment in an Offering Period (24 months), this plan allows employees to purchase Rovi stock at two purchase dates per calendar year at a discounted rate. Contributions into the plan are made via a payroll deduction in an amount equal to between 1 percent and 20 percent of compensation (not to exceed $21,250 in any calendar year). The purchase price is 85 percent of the lesser of the fair market value of the Company's stock on the first day of the Offering Period or the last day of the same Purchase Period (six months), whichever is lower.
401(k)
This is a salary reduction plan which allows employees to reduce their compensation and have the amounts contributed into a savings plan, tax free, to accumulate for retirement. The contributions can be invested in a variety of methods of your choice.
The current matching contribution is 20 percent of the salary reduction. Matching funds are subject to a three-year vesting schedule and are allocated after the employee has worked 1,000 hours during the plan year based on IRS regulations.
Holidays
Rovi grants a minimum of eleven paid calendar holidays. Additionally, Employees will be granted one Floating Holiday. The Floating Holiday cannot be carried forward into the following year and is not convertible to cash.
Flexible Time Off (FTO)
Flexible Time Off accrues on the last day of each calendar month, beginning from the date of hire according to the schedule below. The accrual of FTO is prorated for the first month of employment if the start date is not the first working day of the month.
Credited Years of Service Years
FTO Earned
First through fourth years
4 weeks
Fifth year and following years
5 weeks
Perks
Educational Assistance
Rovi provides financial assistance in the continuing education of employees. Course work will be considered for approval and reimbursement if it is related to the employee's present or probable next position with Rovi, or if it is required as part of a program leading to a job-related degree. Reimbursement will be given to regular, full-time employees after completion of 90 days of employment. Employees enrolled in degree programs prior to their hire date are not eligible for tuition reimbursement for completion of their regular program, unless approved in writing at the time of hire.
Health Club Membership
In order to promote the health and well-being of its employees, Rovi reimburses one-half the cost of an annual health club membership at the club of the employee's choice, up to a total reimbursement of $300 per calendar year.
Bonus and Incentive Programs
Rovi offers a number of bonus and incentive programs to its employees to encourage and reward their efforts. These include an Annual Company Incentive Plan, Performance Bonuses, Special Recognition Awards, Patent Awards, and Referral Bonuses, to name just a few.
Sonic Solutions and all of its divisions are now a part of Rovi Corporation. Rovi will now be able to deliver an end-to-end solution that enables it's customers and consumers to create, discover, manage, acquire, share and enjoy digital entertainment. Sonic adds advanced technologies, from industry leading consumer tools like Roxio Creator and Toast, RoxioNow retail solution, to DivX and MainConcept video playback technology and Sonic Pro tools to the Rovi portfolio. These products complement Rovi guidance, content protection, networking, metadata, media recognition and recommendations technologies expanding the company's offering across the entire digital entertainment ecosystem.
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