Avid Technology today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire M-Audio (also known as Midiman, Inc.), a leading provider of digital audio and MIDI solutions for electronic musicians and audio professionals. At closing, Avid will pay approximately US$80 million in cash, issue 2 million shares of Avid common stock, and assume all outstanding M-Audio stock options. Under the terms of the agreement, M-Audio will become a business unit of Avid’s Digidesign audio division and market its line of computer audio peripherals, PCI sound cards, keyboard controllers and control surfaces, microphones, speakers, and distributed software and proprietary sound libraries alongside Digidesign’s award-winning digital audio workstations for the professional and home/hobbyist markets.