It seems the last couple of months have been ideal for acquisitions, whether they involve patent portfolios or the outright purchasing of companies. Today marks yet another in the recent trend as 3D design firm Autodesk (News - Alert) announced the purchase of Socialcam, the popular smartphone video app.
"Mobile computing, the cloud and social media are improving and changing the way people design, engineer and create projects," Samir Hanna, vice president of the Autodesk Consumer Group, said in a news release. "Video is an ideal medium for professionals and consumers alike to communicate and share their design ideas. We are excited to have Socialcam join our growing portfolio of applications, services and communities for digital art, personal design and fabrication, home design and entertainment."
The acquisition set Autodesk back $60 million, a far cry from the $1 billion Facebook (News - Alert) spent on Instagram, the purchase that sent many companies searching for the "Instagram of video" – a description Socialcam fits very well.
Socialcam, which is an iPhone exclusive, essentially allows users to create, modify with filters and share videos quickly to Facebook, Twitter (News - Alert) and YouTube or directly via e-mail or SMS.
The video app made headlines back in April when it attracted four million new users in one weekend, on the heels of becoming the top free app in the Apple (News - Alert) App Store during a FreeAppADay promotion. Furthermore, the Washington Post announced that their video coverage of the Summer Olympic Games in London will be done entirely via Socialcam.
"Autodesk has a proven track record of acquiring and scaling fast-growing, early stage consumer businesses while staying true to their core audience and vision,” said Michael Seibel, founder and CEO at Socialcam. “We're excited to join them and introduce this global community to simple video creation, editing and sharing."