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This is when it all changed …
London VFX software developer The Foundry, which own the Nuke digital composition system used on films such as Gravity and Guardians of the Galaxy, has been put up for sale by its owners Carlyle Group.
Owners of The Foundry, US private equity giant Carlyle Group, has appointed advisers Arma Partners to find a buyer and expects to realise £200m from the sale.
Carlyle Group is said to want to realise its investment of the company, which employs 270 people across its London, Manchester, Los Angeles, Silicon Valley and Shanghai offices, by the middle of next year.
Earlier this year, the Foundry launched Nuke Studio, a single application for VFX, editorial and finishing based on compositing tool Nuke with the aim of allowing creative to work independently as well as in collaborative teams on quick-turnaround projects.
The Foundry has recently ramped up efforts to move beyond professional VFX software to sell more products to designers.
The Foundry said at the time: “The Nuke family has grown with the official launch of Nuke Studio, as part of Nuke 9. We also introduced our new subsidiary, Made With Mischief, which will focus on designing tools for creative artists.”
The private equity group bought The Foundry in 2011 with a value of around £75m.
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https://www.televisual.com/news-detail/Carlyle-Group-puts-the-Foundry-up-for-sale_nid-4940.htmlGB Labs 60TB SPACE
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24 Replies
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Should be interesting to see who the buyer will be?
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Interesting. I use NukeX as well as Modo which is now owned by them. Nuke is the compositing software of choice in VFX. Nothing else comes close. Since it is a private company no one knows the financials but one would hope this sale is simply indicative of the success of the products and the company, thus the increase in price and value, and not some deeper indication of trouble. Gad I would hate to see Nuke go down the same road that happened to Shake.
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Autodesk?
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Apple? 😉
Scott Witthaus
Senior Editor/Post Production Supervisor
1708 Inc./Editorial
Professor, VCU Brandcenter -
[Scott Witthaus] “Apple? ;-)”
Why? No advantage to them. Remember what has become Nuke links back to Shake. So they’ve been there and walked away. Unless they buy it to kill it in order to promote Motion. What? Motion still exists??
😉
Autodesk or Quantel would be the most logical matches.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Oliver Peters] “Autodesk or Quantel would be the most logical matches.”
or Blackmagic? That would really shake things up
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[Steve Connor] “or Blackmagic? That would really shake things up”
I doubt it. They already have Fusion, so this no longer fills a gap for them. Also the investors want to cash out. It’s not a fire sale.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
One would hope it’s not Autodesk. I use Maya and they have (finally) started to extend and develop that package well. They got Softimage XSI from Avid and proceeded to decimate it and finally killed it. Matchmover… destroyed it. Toxic… a joke.
If they bought it, and they have the pockets to do so, Nuke would probably continue and after a few years of most likely messing it up it might still be around. I don’t see that for Modo however. I love using Modo, especially for modeling but with 3DsMax and Maya in the barn already there would be no room for Modo. Just look at what happened to XSI.
Who knows about Mari, Ocula, Hero and their other products. Speaking from the outside I don’t understand at all their latest acquisition, mischief. That is a simple drawing program that sells for $25. Compared to their product family that is like the 25 cent give-away pen the sales guy gives you so he can keep talking to you for another 10 minutes. That one completely mystifies me. It makes no sense what so ever. That simple act right there might be more telling than anything else. The investors are dumping because the leadership has lost direction or are scrambling. Who knows.
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May as well be AJA so they can battle BMD 😉
GB Labs 60TB SPACE
FCP 7.0.3
FCPX 10.1.2
3 x 4TB Thunderbolt R4
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6 x 2D teranes 2D
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SmartViewCheck out the free iBook broadcast delivery 101 on itunes
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[Phil Hoppes] “Speaking from the outside I don’t understand at all their latest acquisition, mischief. That is a simple drawing program that sells for $25. Compared to their product family that is like the 25 cent give-away pen the sales guy gives you so he can keep talking to you for another 10 minutes. That one completely mystifies me. It makes no sense what so ever.”
Mischief looks like a simple little paint program — but there’s really a very cool technology behind its infinite canvas:
https://www.fxguide.com/featured/whats-the-foundry-buying-the-tech-of-adf/
[Phil Hoppes] “The investors are dumping because the leadership has lost direction or are scrambling. Who knows.”
I wouldn’t read too much into the sale. Buy and hold is not the private equity model. It is the destiny of all PE-acquired companies to be sold in order to return money to investors.
Carlyle holds The Foundry in an investment fund, which buys, (hopefully) improves, and then sells stakes in companies. If they don’t sell the companies they buy at significant multiples (in this case, 75 million euros to 200 million euros), fund investors cannot realize the gains that make PE so attractive.
Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive | RenderBreak [blog] | Profile [LinkedIn]
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