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Autodesk Buys Socialcam for $60M

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Re: Autodesk Buys Socialcam for $60M

#21

Post by alaskamiller »

debacle wrote: post #2

I think I can speak for everyone when I say "Autodesk? Really?"

No, you can't.

Is Hacker News crowded out by kids these days?

Autodesk of now is a collection of products and companies that vary from CAD software to online photo editing to 3D Studio Max to Maya and a variety of video filter and processing.

Think about that for a second. They make professional grade video finishing software. Socialcam is a casual video sharing community with a variety of video finishing processes available.

Re: Autodesk Buys Socialcam for $60M

#23

Post by cmcewen »

Most people seem confused by Autodesk part of this headline. Am I the only one confused by the $60M?

Look at the traffic decline: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/socialcam.com

My understanding is that a bunch of people clicked on Socialcam when it showed up in their news feed and didn't know they were signing up - now it seems the numbers are starting to reflect that not many people actually use it.

Maybe I'm just crazy.

Re: Autodesk Buys Socialcam for $60M

#24

Post by w1ntermute »

veyron wrote: post #12
bborud wrote: post #9

I'm imagining Autodesk's M&A team are right now getting a lecture on what "CAM" stands for by the engineers and that there will be some facepalming.

Though it should be said that a social CAM application is a funny idea.

Actually, being able to collaborate in real-time on a model would be quite useful.

Re: Autodesk Buys Socialcam for $60M

#25

Post by pg »

cmcewen wrote: post #23

Most people seem confused by Autodesk part of this headline. Am I the only one confused by the $60M? Look at the traffic decline: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/socialcam.com My understanding is that a bunch of people clicked on Socialcam when it showed up in their news feed and didn't know they were signing up - now it seems the numbers are starting to reflect that not many people actually use it. Maybe I'm just craz…

I don't know about their traffic but I would not be surprised if it had decined. Growth comes from paying attention to growth. But getting acquired, like raising money, is an immense drain on attention. In both cases it can put a startup in a dangerous pinch.

Re: Autodesk Buys Socialcam for $60M

#27

Post by untog »

debacle wrote: post #2

I think I can speak for everyone when I say "Autodesk? Really?"

It's a big deal but not totally unknown for Autodesk. A quick look on the Play store shows they also own "Pixlr-o-matic", an image editing app. They've been experimenting with consumer-facing stuff for a while.

Re: Autodesk Buys Socialcam for $60M

#28

Post by brudgers »

debacle wrote: post #2

I think I can speak for everyone when I say "Autodesk? Really?"

Looks like Autodesk may be purchasing talent. Seibel is certainly someone who could fit into Autodesk's executive succession track; Bartram has some pretty solid technical chops in video, and Luccisano has a strong Rails background.

As Autodesk reengages in multi-platform development, all three developers potentially deepen the in-house knowledge-base - I try to keep in mind that Autodesk is a mature company and has always seemed to have had a bit more of an academic culture than a typical software company (e.g. the use of Lisp in their flagship product).

Re: Autodesk Buys Socialcam for $60M

#29

Post by brudgers »

replicatorblog wrote: post #3
debacle wrote: post #2

I think I can speak for everyone when I say "Autodesk? Really?"

Autodesk is actually a pretty cool company in the enterprise space. They're historically a CAD behemoth, but have been releasing a bunch of apps and experimenting with different business models. Their software is typically rough around the edges, but they could have something cool up their sleeves with this.

In the CAD space, Autodesk is anything but "rough around the edges." The only time that was a reasonable argument was when they rewrote AutoCAD to be object oriented in the mid 1990's and issued it as Release 13. Otherwise, relative to their competitors they are able to deliver solid applications and reliable implementations of new features (maybe it's their Lisp background?)
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