[Trainer-talk] Article/Merger Between dynavox and Tobii

[David Goldfield]

I just saw this on LinkedIn. Notice how the article mentions that the 
iPad was one of the reasons for why Dynavox was struggling ...


Former Pittsburgh competitors merge, team on assistive technology
Emily Harger | Tribune-Review
Oscar Werner, left, president of Tobii Assistive Technology, and Bob 
Cunningham, right, Chief Strategy and Clinical Officer at DynaVox 
Technologies, pose for a portrait with their company's speech generating 
devices on Monday, June 9, 2014. DynaVox and Tobii plan to collaborate 
on producing speech generation technology in the future.

About John D. Oravecz
John D. Oravecz 412-320-7882
Business Writer
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Details
About Tobii-DynaVox
Business: Communication and education products for people with speech 
and learning challenges.
Headquarters: South Side
Employees: 286 in the United States; plus 75 others worldwide
Revenue: $90 million
Executives: Oscar Werner, CEO; Bob Cunningham, chief strategy and 
clinical officer; Tony Pavlik, vice president of operations; Fredrik 
Ruben, president, global assistive technology; Tara Rudnicki, president, 
Tobii Assistive Technology unit.

By John D. Oravecz

Published: Monday, June 16, 2014 11:15 p.m.

When Adam Davidson was 3 months old, doctors told his parents that he 
would never walk or talk because of cerebral palsy and other disorders.
Now 18, his family says he is “a talker” — thanks to speech-generating 
technology from DynaVox Systems LLC.
Devices made by DynaVox enhance the communicating abilities of people 
who suffer from cerebral palsy, Lou Gehrig's disease and other 
conditions that make it difficult to move and speak.
The South Side-based company is getting another chance to continue 
improving tools that help people with such speech and learning 
challenges from ALS, cerebral palsy or other motor disabilities since 
merging last month with Tobii Technology AB of Sweden.
The two former competitors, leaders in making communication and 
education devices for the assistive technology market, are now one 
company, focused on expansion.
Founded in 1995, DynaVox went public in 2010 on its strength as a leader 
in speech devices and symbol-adapted software. But its debut as a public 
company was followed quickly by changes in the market — the introduction 
of the iPad and other tablets that could perform the same function.
That led to falling sales, a default on $15 million in debt and 
eventually to a Bankruptcy Court-supervised auction of its assets won by 
Tobii on May 23.
It's been a month since the companies combined, and CEO Oscar Werner 
said he and Bob Cunningham, chief strategy and clinical officer at 
DynaVox, are figuring out its future, even the name of the combined 
company.
“Call it Tobii-DynaVox as a working name, but that could change,” Werner 
said last week at DynaVox's South Side headquarters, where 160 of the 
company's 286 domestic employees work.
The combined company has undisclosed new products on the eve of 
introduction, but still to be determined is a marketing strategy and 
which brand names to use in global markets now open to both. DynaVox's 
current top product, the T-10 tablet, was introduced last fall.
Tobii's Assistive Technology unit has been a leader in eye-tracking 
technology — an area Dynavox struggled to develop its own, even 
acquiring a company in the attempt.
“Suddenly, we have access to the technology we had been struggling to 
get,” said Cunningham. “You have to have great eye-tracking technology. 
But it was never possible to compete with someone like Tobii. Their 
technical strengths were our weaknesses.”
Werner said the companies hope to add to combined annual sales of $90 
million by capturing more of a market estimated at $500 million a year 
worldwide.
“There's a huge unmet demand,” said Werner. In the United States alone, 
he estimated 150,000 people annually need their devices, compared to 
30,000 who now use Tobii-DynaVox products.
Those with aphasia — who lack the ability to understand or produce 
language — and people with spinal cord injuries are two of the largest 
unmet markets, Werner said.
“We can put them into eye-tracking technology, so when they go to 
school, they can type with their eyes. Independence is the word these 
people would use; they regain their independence,” he added.
Eye-tracking technology uses a device that follows where a persons eyes 
look on a computer screen. The user can select an item on the screen — a 
letter of the alphabet or an icon — simply by looking at it longer. They 
can spell words or sentences that the device translates into spoken 
words on a speaker. DynaVox's speech-generation devices and software 
work similarly, with the user tapping a touchscreen.
Upcoming products at Tobii-DynaVox will focus on speed, Werner. said 
“How do you get 30-50 percent better at communicating? The challenge is 
increasing the rate of accessing a computer, just as fast as you and me.”
Tobii of Danderyd, Sweden, now owns 100 percent of DynaVox, the result 
of events triggered last year after it defaulted on $15 million in debt. 
Competing technology such as Apple's iPad caused sales to fall. In its 
final financial report, for the year ended June 30, 2013, DynaVox lost 
$8.7 million on sales of $65 million. That compared to a loss of $57.5 
million on sales of $97.3 million, in the prior 12 months.
Its largest shareholder, Vestar Capital Partners, put the company up for 
sale, but no deals were completed, Werner said. Then in March, JEC 
Capital Partners LLC acquired Dynavox's debt from lender GE Capital Corp.
On April 8, JEC Capital foreclosed on three DynaVox affiliates, placing 
them in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Vestar then initiated a court-supervised 
public auction for all of the DynaVox assets.
Tobii, JEC Capital and a third party submitted bids on May 15, with a 
judge confirming Tobii's offer of $18 million as the winner.
Davidson's parents, Raye Lynn and Scott Davidson of Gibsonia, said 
pre-school teachers encouraged them to get him a communications device. 
He started working on a DynaVox unit at age 3, at first generating 
single words. “That was the beginning of knowing this would be good 
device for him,” Scott Davidson said.
“It's like a heart transplant for him; it gave him life,” said Adam 
Davidson, his brother. “He can type in anything he wants; he's a talker.”

Copyright © 2014 — Trib Total Media

-- 

      David Goldfield,
Assistive Technology specialist
---------

Visit my Web site
http://www.davidgoldfield.info

Feel free to visit my LinkedIn profile
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/david-goldfield/12/929/573

visit my blog
http://davidgoldfield.wordpress.com

Follow me on Twitter
http://www.twitter.com/davidgoldfield