Avid is in the final stages of selling its M-Audio hardware line to InMusic, an umbrella company that already owns Ion Audio, Numark, Alesis, Akai, and MixMeister. This is part of today's $17 million deal that rids Avid of most of its consumer audio production tools including its Avid and Pinnacle video editing suites, which will go to digital media company Corel. The company also announced that it will be laying off 20 percent of its full-time employees.

Despite these reductions, Avid will retain its ProTools audio suite and the handful of digital interfaces that go with it. The company's move to restructure itself towards enterprise and professional creative customers makes financial sense, especially considering that the products in question only account for $91 million of the company's $677 million revenue stream, but InMusic's acquisition of yet another audio production line is also thought-provoking, to say the least.