Digital asset management (DAM) company iView Multimedia has been acquired by Microsoft, according to an announcement from iView founder Yan Calotychos yesterday. The acquisition was completed on June 22.
With the acquisition, iView products, including the popular iView MediaPro, and iView employees are now part of the Microsoft lineup. Calotychos said Microsoft would continue to support and develop iView’s existing Macintosh products.
Microsoft was interested in iView primarily because of the company’s digital asset management technology, which allows users to create, share and store large volumes of digital files.
Caloychos believes a parent company like Microsoft entails a “bigger and brighter future”:
What this acquisition will mean for you, our customers, is that together we face a bigger and brighter future in managing your creative workflow. The product that was born on the Mac will remain on the Mac as well as on the Windows operating system.
All iView products will continue to be sold on the iView website and through our partners and channel. Bottom line: You all can continue to use and buy iView products knowing that they will be fully supported as Microsoft evolves the products in the future on both the Windows and Mac platforms.
From the FAQ:
The entire iView team is staying on board, so you can expect the same level of professionalism and enthusiasm that you have become accustomed to, from the same people. The development team including Yan will be relocating to Redmond to join forces with Microsoft. The web site, support network and forums are open for business as usual, and you can contact us in the same ways you have done in the past
Because iView’s DAM technology is known for its digital photo and cataloguing capabilities, integrating well with importers/browsers and photo editing programs, many are speculating that Microsoft is looking to enter into the online photo business to compete with Google’s Picasa and Apple’s iLife.
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