Only a week after Montreal, Quebec-based multimedia software developer Softimage Inc announced that it had acquired animation software specialist ImageWare Research & Development Inc of Toronto, Microsoft Corp has pounced and snapped up the combined company. Softimage, developer of high-performance two- and three-dimensional animation and visualisation software, is going to Microsoft for shares worth about $130m. Microsoft will swap 0.279 of its own shares for share Softimage outstanding, with an adjustment factor designed to provide not less than $21 and not more than $24 of value per Softimage share. Microsoft senior vice-president Nathan Myhrvold said at the announcement that he expects more acquisitions as the company expands its efforts in digital multimedia, but cautioned that there are few opportunities in the emerging digital media field comparable with that offered by Softimage so Microsoft’s growth will continue to be driven largely by internal developments. He sees Softimage’s technology, currently priced between $6,000 and $84,000 and used only by the likes of movie studios and creators of television commercials, filtering down to consumers in the form of interactive television and products to enhance home videos. And Craig Mundie, vice-president of Microsoft’s advanced consumer technology group, said the company’s nominal $100m annual budget for multimedia spending was over and above the $130m being spent on Softimage – which will be in shares anyway.
