123RF Acquires Autodesk Pixlr to Boost the World's Creative Ecosystem
SAN FRANCISCO and HONG KONG, April 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- 123RF has acquired Pixlr, one of the world's most widely used cloud and mobile photo editors from Autodesk, Inc. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
With the addition of this powerful and free image editing tool, Inmagine Group, the parent company of 123RF, moves a step closer to its mission of creating a holistic creative ecosystem that makes great design accessible to all.
This acquisition propels Inmagine Group's unique monthly active users (MAUs) towards the 50 million mark in addition to a compelling mobile strategy with over 100 million installs of Pixlr mobile apps, thereby creating a new vertically-integrated platform that delivers engaging user experiences to the creative community.
Founded in 2008, Pixlr offers a suite of cloud-based image tools and utilities such as photo editing tool Pixlr Editor, Pixlr Express, Pixlr iOS/Android App and Pixlr-O-Matic.
Since acquiring Pixlr in 2011, Autodesk has invested to expand the portfolio and bring powerful editing tools to millions of users around the world and in the process, grew the user base twenty-fold.
123RF's in-house production team of over 200 will begin working to expand the Pixlr content library as a value add to its users, ensuring Pixlr communities will continue to have access to new tools and content.
"As part of our ongoing business model transition, Autodesk has decided to focus development resources on our core product portfolio, so we were pleased to find in 123RF a partner who is committed to supporting the Pixlr community and investing in ongoing enhancements to the product," said Thomas Heermann, Autodesk senior director, digital arts. "Autodesk remains committed to providing tools and services that can help anybody make anything, and we will work with 123RF to ensure that the Autodesk and Pixlr user communities continue to have access to the broadest set of design tools."
Andy Sitt, founder and chairman of Inmagine Group and 123RF added, "It's a game-changing collaboration that empowers creatives with seamless access to free and affordable content within their favorite free image editing tools. Through this transaction, both 123RF and Autodesk aim to develop and enhance Pixlr to inspire more users worldwide."
ABOUT PIXLR
Pixlr was started in Sweden in August 2008 and offers a suite of cloud-based image editing tools and utilities (web and mobile) such as Pixlr Editor, Pixlr-O-Matic and Pixlr Express. Pixlr's tools are built to enable non-professionals and professionals alike to create, edit, and share images online via social networking services or utilize in various creative works.
ABOUT INMAGINE GROUP
Inmagine Group has over 450 staff in 40 offices around the globe. It was founded in 2000 as Inmagine.com and, despite being fully bootstrapped, has quickly expanded its reach with sites like 123RF.com, TheHungryJPEG.com, StockUnlimited.com, Designs.net. Inmagine Group has one of the world's largest content libraries across the creative ecosystem and draws over 40 million visitors a month to its various online properties.
ABOUT 123RF
Founded in 2005, 123RF has grown to be one of the world's largest royalty-free digital stock agency. As part of the Inmagine Group, 123RF has helped a wide clientele of individuals and businesses from more than 40 locations worldwide tell their stories using creative imagery, sounds and motion contributed by talents from around the world. 123RF aims to be a creative solutions enabler through constant innovation, new products and services.
For more information, please contact:
Patrick Yu / Valerie Sun
FleishmanHillard
fh.123rf@fleishman.com
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