Alias Spin Off?

[MacBytes]

Category: 3rd Party Software
Link: Alias, makers of Maya, announces it is in talks for a possible buyout from SGI

Posted on MacBytes.com

Approved by Mudbug

[nuckinfutz]

I wonder just who that Private buyer is or who they represent.

Alias would be a nice aquisition for Apple. But I don't know if they'd be interested in developing their own 3D App.

[ITR 81]

I've heard Adobe, MS, or Apple.
I hope it's Apple.

[Mudbug]

Originally posted by ITR 81
I've heard Adobe, MS, or Apple.
I hope it's Apple.

heard from where? from who?

[MacRumors]

Alias announced that the company is "involved in exclusive discussions with a leading private equity investment firm for the acquisition of Alias".

The result appears to be a spin-off of the Alias company into an "an independent entity". According to the President of Alias, this would enable Alias "to further expand its business, extend customer value and create significant growth with its products and services."

Past speculation had previously pegged Apple as an interested party in the company.

[mj_1903]

The general consensus on Slashdot was that Apple would buy them as well, and I certainly hope this happens. If they do then hopefully they do the same as with Logic in terms of pricing on other platforms.

[ionas]

no pro apps left on windows - and if - twice the price ;p

but on the other side if those things happen - apple will become more and more a pseudo monopoly.

[ph8te]

It seems that Apple is currently grabbing anything that is up for grabs... and rightly so. Up untill a few years ago, the "real" designers only used Apple Mac, and companies like Adobe and Macromdeia were almost exclusively servicing the Mac-Industry, with a couple of products available for PC as well. Now, since these companies (Adobe & Macromedia) have substantial supports for the PC, companies, especially the smaller ones, are not buying Macs to do the day to day DTP/Graphic Design work. So the nieche-market that once was entirely Apple's domain has been infiltrated by the PCers. (Well, at least we don't have to deal with that horrible Corel Draw any more, absolutely zero cross-compatibility).

So, with the Personal Computer Industry supplying faster and faster machines, the new, high-end, markets of Video and Animation are becoming more accessible to the world, and Apple is now taking the initiative and, it seems, concentrating on becoming the leader in that market. Steve knows what he is doing there, being CEO of Pixar after all.

The only thing bothering me is that Apple must take care not to become too specialised again. They are currently making great leaps into getting their Macs to personal and home-users and it would be a pity if the situation were to change and the Macs would be seen as Computers only for a specialised market.

[Masao[RY]]

I believe if Apple bought Alias it would be very good for Apple and it'd put a large dent in the Window's pro market for a while.

I'm sure something will replace Maya there as soon as Windows users are ready for an update.. perhaps Apple should start a program where you turn in your Windows Alias software, get xy% off the latest (When apple came out with a newer version of Maya, only for the mac.) Mac Version and $200 off any mac? That'd be one sweet of a deal and counld draw Windows Alias users to a mac. One can only dream

[splashman]

Did I miss something? The press release calls the interested party a "leading private equity investment firm". Unless that is an intentionally misleading description (highly unlikely), they aren't talking about Apple. So why is everyone talking about the effects of Apple buying Alias?

The only reason this press release was posted is that Apple was previously rumored to be a contender, and now clearly isn't.

[lem0nayde]

Yeah, I was also puzzled by the "leading private equity investment firm" thing. What exactly does that mean? Could that be a firm that acts as a go-between for Apple and Alias?

With Apple Maya, Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro, Shake, Logic and the very promising future of the G5 - Apple is poising itself to be the leading manufacturer of computers for Hollywood. It cannot be overstated what a HUGE market this is - it could propel Apple forward in enormous ways, though not necessarily in the low-end consumer market (which will remain Windows-centric.)

Jobs knows what he is doing indeed. He just kicked out DISNEY for god's sake! He's got major clout in Hollywood, with a super successful animation studio under his belt - and now leading a company that is creating tools that are a joy to use.

On the other hand, maybe Microsoft is buying Maya, to cut it off from the Mac and make Apple suffer.

[wrldwzrd89]

I don't quite understand this deal. Apparently Alias is going to be acquired AND spun off into an "independent entity". What is that supposed to mean? Why would anyone do this? More importantly, HOW would this be done? It just doesn't seem like good business sense to acquire another company only to immediately spin it off again. Can anyone here offer me some further insight and clear things up for me?

[ph8te]

Originally posted by lem0nayde
On the other hand, maybe Microsoft is buying Maya, to cut it off from the Mac and make Apple suffer.

Now there's a thought... Imagine, in the future our movie-visits will be plagued by security risks, the cinema projectors will continuously crash, every time you go and see a movie your'e likely to pick up a virus, and you can never really finish watching the movie, because, just as you head towards the ending a patch gets released changing the plot.

Hey, maybe not a bad idea, as the movie industry would increase revenues, because you would have to watch a movie 10 times to get the whole picture...

[slightly]

The original "Alias" series was great. Now there's to be a spin-off? I wonder if Jennifer Garner is going to make guest appearances.

[e-coli]

Microsoft already owns SoftImage technology. they wouldn't spend a giant chunk of change to buy Alias. Besides, they let SoftImage die off. So that tells you how important 3D is to them.

It might be Adobe, but that really isn't their field.

I'd be willing to bet it's Apple, or Discreet gobbling up the competition.

[Grimace]

Originally posted by slightly
The original "Alias" series was great. Now there's to be a spin-off? I wonder if Jennifer Garner is going to make guest appearances.

That was definitely my first reaction!!

[MecOuf]

Microsoft sold Softimage to Avid years ago, I'm not sure that they want to go back in this business, again.
By the way, if Alias buy Apple, the risk is simple, a big chunk of studios will move on to something else. Wich is unfortunately the case with Shake.
We love Apple, but we're not alone and most of the users in animationa nd post-prod studios are not aware of the G5's possibillity.

I'm in this business and I see it everyday...

[wchamlet]

Why did a big chunk of users switch from shake? I thought the Windows licenses of Shake was small, and the Linux/Irix users where Nothing Real's main market. I don't think a lot of people did the "Switch" like you are saying. True Apple alienated Windows users, but they gave them some pretty sweet deals to switch to a Mac. But that isn't the same issue with Alias.

If anything, I'm a little worried that the "Private Investor" is probably going to be a bad thing for Maya on the Mac users. Alias still hasn't seen fit to port Unlimited to OS X, and that to me points to a bad future for Maya on the Mac.

Oh well, at least Maya 4.5 still works fine for me. We may not even see version 6.

[MecOuf]

Some of them dont want to buy a Mac, some of them did and are happy. (very few of them did)
Some schools dont want to buy G5s because their major software is Windows compatible and they don't want to have more than one workstation.
For your info, approximately, Shake is 5000$ for OSX and 10000$ for Linux...
An other player is coming well in the compositing market : Digital Fusion...
Remember, Maya is may be compatible with OSX but only Complete and NOT Unlimited... It's an other reason why Windows has a strong place in the 3d world most studios needs Unlimited. And we're not speaking about Softimage|XSI wich is only compatible with Linux and you know what....

[wchamlet]

Shake cost $10,000 per license before Apple bought Nothing Real. Apple dropped the price for the Mac version to make it easier for people to "Switch" to Mac hardware. Apple even offered a trade up program for Windows users to get two Mac licenses for their one Windows license. To top that, they had a promotion if you owned Maya 4.5 for Mac or Windows, you got an additional $2,000 off the price of Shake.

So if those companies still refused to use Mac hardware after Apple's deals, then that's there own fault. They could have saved tons of money, instead of switching to DF. Plus they would have had free render licenses for Shake, that would have saved them even more money. The only reason people didn't want to switch is because of Mac bias, plain and simple. To set up a Mac on a network, and to incorporate it into a workflow is a breeze. Especially considering that Shake and Maya will integrate with other OS versions quite well.

[stoid]

I think people are just scared of what it means if Apple dominates a market. Apple does things for the sake of doing them right, and generally succeeds. Most companies do things for the sake of maximizing profits, and generally succeed. So if another company dominates a market, they will utilize that monopoly to over-charge and under-develop their products (could MS Windows be anymore perfect an example). When Apple dominates a market, it uses it's monopoly to fuel development and make great products even better and more useful (could the continued development and expansion of the iPod/iPod Mini/iTunes/iTMS be anymore perfect an example). Most companies, once dominating a market, squat on it. They become lethargic, and soon allows for the competition to create what they should have been spending their profits to create in the first place. Apple spends it's profits and continues to develop better and completely new related products. So you have a choice, one way you have inferior products but chance for competition to improve products down the road; the other way you get superior products, but little or no competition.

[ITR 81]

Originally posted by Mudbug
heard from where? from who?

From gov. Apple rep.
From gov. MS rep.

Both reps mentioned this last yr when I was still working for the Army.

The Army and AF were both demoing 15inch PB's late last yr.

Adobe is the word from the net..mostly due to their lack of a 3d-app.

[byla]

Originally posted by e-coli
Microsoft already owns SoftImage technology. they wouldn't spend a giant chunk of change to buy Alias. Besides, they let SoftImage die off. So that tells you how important 3D is to them.

It might be Adobe, but that really isn't their field.

I'd be willing to bet it's Apple, or Discreet gobbling up the competition.

I dont know what kind of market share does Softimage have, but it is far from dead. Actualy, softimage right now is considered as probably the best all round 3d package, but quite expensive. I will not go into details, why is it that good, but proclaiming its dead is just plain ignorance about what is happening in the high end 3d market. Actualy, Softimage is gaining market share, because Maya is loosing it, as far as I know.

[byla]

Originally posted by MecOuf
Some of them dont want to buy a Mac, some of them did and are happy. (very few of them did)
Some schools dont want to buy G5s because their major software is Windows compatible and they don't want to have more than one workstation.
For your info, approximately, Shake is 5000$ for OSX and 10000$ for Linux...
An other player is coming well in the compositing market : Digital Fusion...
Remember, Maya is may be compatible with OSX but only Complete and NOT Unlimited... It's an other reason why Windows has a strong place in the 3d world most studios needs Unlimited. And we're not speaking about Softimage|XSI wich is only compatible with Linux and you know what....

It is true, Maya Complete is the only version avaliable for OS X. But it is not true, that the most studios need Unlimited version. Quite the opposite. While Maya Complete is a good value for its price, we can hardly say that for Unlimited version. Whoever knows something about 3d graphics and specialy Maya knows, that difference is minimal and that a big majority of studios around the world dont even own one single version of Maya Unlimited. Why? No matter how many integrated ex plugins it has, it is pricey and not worth the money at all.
One could expect that high end studios have unlimited versions all round the place. Wrong. Most high end studios develope their own cloth simulators, ocean shaders and other eye candy stuff and much much better that ones from Alias. If you ever compared Maya cloth (unlimited only) and for instance, Syflex, you know what I mean.


Another stupid quote: XSI is only compatible with Linux..... wrong again. XSI is compatible with Irix and, unbelivable, with Windows as well. Actualy, it feels much more confortable using XSI on Windows that on any other platform. Try it.


And those guys who think canceling Shake for Windows was a big drawback for Apple... wrong. Shake has never been stable on Windows, not even with certified hardware, so completly canceling support for windows was a good thing. From experienced user point of view. But from kids point of view, that could be a mistake, because most of the kids are using Windows and therefore not using and learning Shake anymore.

[Pastor_Mac]

I've tracked but do not own any shares in SGI for over 3 years. There were a couple of times, one being quite recently, the stock was well under a buck a share. The stock went from .50/share to about 1.50 when Microsoft bought certain unnamed intellectual property rights--I suspect whatever was bought was simply to raise cash as SGI was seriously on the ropes. But after that transaction the stock settled back down under a dollar.

All of a sudden over the past month the stock has been on a tear going from 1.25 to today breaking $4/share. Here's a chart:
http://quotes.nasdaq.com/quote.dll?p...G&selected=SGI
Let's just say $5000 invested at the 1st of the year would have yielded a very tidy profit. Obviously there's something driving moving SGI hard and fast.

This is the question I've been asking for 3 years now, namely, would Apple be interested in SGI as a whole? Would IRIX be useful for OS X development? While SGI does have hardware support issues, if SGI was bought would that be too big of a boat anchor for Apple to support legacy SGI hardware? Is Steve sniffing around SGI?