Google Buys Nik Software

Both Google and Nik Software have announced that the former has acquired the latter. Nik Software is the developer of Capture NX, the image editor optimized for Nikon users; Silver Efex, a leading B&W conversion program; Sharpener; and the photo app Snapseed, among other products.

Mike
(Thanks to Kevin Purcell)

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Original contents copyright 2012 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Comments

[James Powers]

I'm sorry to hear this. I use a number of Nik software plugins, and Google will end up killing them.

[Dillan K]

All the media seems to know about Nik is their Snapseed iphone program. Probably that's what Google bought them for. It's a shame; I'd rather they remained independent.

[Martin Ranger]

Let's hope they can actually get the software to work. I have had nothing but problems with Color amd Silver Efex.

[Rob]

I am a big user of the Nik Plugins, and this takeover by Google causes me some concern. When a big shark swallows a small fish, it usually does not work out well for the small fish. I fear that Google will refocus Nik's expertise and resources towards forwarding Google's larger agenda, which seems to be domination of the flow of information online. I can envision Nik shifting its efforts towards online imaging, which is not what I value most, but then maybe I'm a dinosaur.

[Derek Lyons]

Google continues its random corporate acquisitions...

[Simon]

one one regret with not buying an iPhone was not having Snapseed available on android - looks like that might change

[Chris Lucianu]

Let’s hope — against reasonable hope — that this plays out better than previous gobbling of indie software by gluttonous conglomerates. iView by Microsoft, anyone? Canvas for Mac by ACD? Sibelius by Avid?

The fate of Capture NX after Nikon restored it to its uncongenial step-fold tells a cautionary tale about outsourced software and what happens to it when it’s no longer the developer’s livelihood. (What makes up 94% of Google’s revenue?)

But Snapseed for Android will now see the light, no doubt. And Brutus is an honourable man.

[Ade]

Hopefully Nik will crack on with that long-promised Android port of Snapseed now. He who pays the piper, etc.

[John MacKechnie]

Interesting. I understand that McDonald's is interested in Canon and that Revlon is all over Olympus.

[Jim Bullard]

It strikes me as an odd merger. Some have said that Google really wanted Snapseed which makes sense for their mobile imaging market but I'd have thought they could just license that. I'm hoping that the NIK Photoshop plugins don't just disappear as a result of this but I don't see why Google would have any interest in continuing to develop them.

[MarkR]

Conventional wisdom is that they bought Nik for Snapseed so that they can build their social networking.

As someone who uses Nik Silver Efex and Color Efex, and as someone who has used Google Video and Google Picnic, I'm a little nervous.

[Ed Hawco]

Most of the blah-blah-blah I've seen about this has focused on Snapseed, as some people see it as a competitor to Instagram (which is now owned by Facebook).

I don't use any Nik software myself, but I have a great respect for its Silver Efex and other high-end software. I hope this purchase does no harm to those lines, and is not just a grab at a toy to attract users to Google Plus.

[Will]

Eek! Clearly, they're after Snapseed. History has shown these sorts of targeted aquisitions spell death for the less-desirable parts of the business, and while I can see Google wanting the mobile app, complex and targeted photography software like Silver Efex and Dfine don't seem part of their grand plan.

[Mark St. John]

Nik really seemed to be run by photographers who made great tools for themselves and others. Google is almost entirely about web services (as a vehicle for its advertising business). I can't see how all those great Nik plug-ins (Colour Efex, Silver Efex, Dfine...), only of interest to a minority of photographers, will survive. The customer base is too small and the plug-ins are desktop-specific, not web, software. Sigh.

[Rich Beaubien]

What the press releases are saying is Google wanted Snapseed but I'm thinking they really wanted the engineering staff. And I'm not sure this will be good for those of us that use Nik plug-in products. Most scenarios don't look promising.

I'm thinking Google recognizes that the most active users of Google+ are photographers and they want to develop that base. They want to merge Nik's engineering crew with the Picasa group and develop a new version of Picasa that incorporates those nifty tools. Nice idea. It will make me look but I really like my current post process scheme. It would take a lot to move me (and my large database) from Adobe over to Google. So for me it would be bad. I'd be losing my favorite plug-in.

Maybe Google continues to sells the plug-ins or maybe sells off portions of Nik to a third party. Both of these would be good for me but probably unlikely.

[Thingo]

Reminds me of an unpleasant experience a few years ago: Adobe bought out Pixmantec's "RawShooter premium".
http://www.dpreview.com/news/2005/10/27/rawshooterprem
Still the best RAW processing software I've used.

The big "A" "gave" us paid users a licence to Lightroom v1.0. What a joke: slow, pathetic, bloated. A complete contrast to RawShooter. Now up to v4, Lightroom has sped up, does useful things, but is still bloated. (Oh yes, it's really only "sped up" because my computer is now _much_ faster.)

Why oh why must small elegant tools be spoilt with bloat?

All the best to those Nik users out there.

[Tsosie]

I emailed NIK and asked if they would be willing to buy back the disk/programs I have of theirs. I'll delete the stuff completely from my computer. Don't want to deal with google at all.

[Matthew Miller]

Wouldn't it be nice if, if Snapseed is all they really want, they would open source the other stuff?

It'd take some work, but it'd be awesome if Darktable and Rawtherapee could pick up the pieces.