yeah i am a huge fan of Veers for a lot of reasons. I thought this might happen and had written about it on our blog. Seems to me that Veer lacked a huge sales force to handle it’s clientele and they reached a tipping point. They can now leverage the Corbis sales structure to handle that and Corbis gets the cool branding that Veer represented.
I’m more in line with James.
I can’t see the day that 37S would want to be acquired by anyone.
Which leads me to my ask 37 Signals questions…
Is it a good thing to be acquired?
Is it a good thing to take VC money?
JF
on 07 Nov 07
James/Andrew: It’s a good thing to get acquired if you want to be acquired. From what I hear the folks at VEER are very happy about the acquisition. That’s what matters.
Schmelding
on 07 Nov 07
I think this is a sad, sad day for design.
Jose
on 07 Nov 07
I agree with Jason, what matters is what you think is better for your business/company to grow and I think this merge-like acquisition is a very good start to learn one from another, both have great product and great vision of how the image stock market is, I think that combining that knowledge is going to be something big.
We’re big fans of Veer, as well, and I have to admit I’m a little sad to see such a great independent company get acquired. Obviously, if the money is there and it’s what you’ve been aiming for you have to take it and run… but I hope the spirit that ran rampant through all of Veer (product, website, merch, people) will not suffocate under the weight of a massive corporation. Time will tell.
Becoming acquired isn’t always a bad thing. I remember years ago when a small company called Softimage was acquired my Microsoft. The industry went crazy, thinking MS was going to ruin the software and utilize it in Windows OS.
Well, that never happened. Softimage was able to produce a solid software application with the help of MS funding.
As a Veer contributor, I’ve been told that nothing will change. However, I’ve been told that before, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed and hope that the move will only increase possible sales.
On the buyers’ end of things, Corbis seems to recognize the huge draw that Veer has within the design community. They have said that they will maintain Veer as an independent brand with largely autonomous operations. One possible indication of this being true is that there is no sight of the Corbis logo anywhere on the Veer site.
In this day and age, it was an inevitable thing, and if Corbis sticks to its word, Veer’s customers should not see any difference, except perhaps an increased sales force to handle their growing business.
As long as they don’t change a thing everything will be ok. Veer has a special feel to it. If that gets messed around with by the suits at Corbis then its bye bye Veer.
Veer has a long history of being indie (Image Club), then being acquired (Aldus), then being acquired again (Adobe), then becoming indie again (Eyewire), then being acquired (Getty), then becoming indie again (Veer). The one certain thing appears to be that the next time the company goes indie, the name will have to change again.
Here’s hoping the mood in Calgary really is cheery. I imagine, though, that there’s likely some ambivalence.
This discussion is closed.
About Jason Fried
Jason co-founded Basecamp back in 1999. He also co-authored REWORK, the New York Times bestselling book on running a "right-sized" business. Co-founded, co-authored... Can he do anything on his own?
James
on 07 Nov 07I love Veer. Why is my first reaction, “Ooooh, that sucks?”
john
on 07 Nov 07yeah i am a huge fan of Veers for a lot of reasons. I thought this might happen and had written about it on our blog. Seems to me that Veer lacked a huge sales force to handle it’s clientele and they reached a tipping point. They can now leverage the Corbis sales structure to handle that and Corbis gets the cool branding that Veer represented.
http://cutcaster.blogspot.com/2007/11/another-one-bite-dust-corbis-buys-veer.html
AndrewH
on 07 Nov 07I’m more in line with James. I can’t see the day that 37S would want to be acquired by anyone.
Which leads me to my ask 37 Signals questions…
Is it a good thing to be acquired? Is it a good thing to take VC money?
JF
on 07 Nov 07James/Andrew: It’s a good thing to get acquired if you want to be acquired. From what I hear the folks at VEER are very happy about the acquisition. That’s what matters.
Schmelding
on 07 Nov 07I think this is a sad, sad day for design.
Jose
on 07 Nov 07I agree with Jason, what matters is what you think is better for your business/company to grow and I think this merge-like acquisition is a very good start to learn one from another, both have great product and great vision of how the image stock market is, I think that combining that knowledge is going to be something big.
Burst Labs
on 07 Nov 07We’re big fans of Veer, as well, and I have to admit I’m a little sad to see such a great independent company get acquired. Obviously, if the money is there and it’s what you’ve been aiming for you have to take it and run… but I hope the spirit that ran rampant through all of Veer (product, website, merch, people) will not suffocate under the weight of a massive corporation. Time will tell.
BradM
on 07 Nov 07Becoming acquired isn’t always a bad thing. I remember years ago when a small company called Softimage was acquired my Microsoft. The industry went crazy, thinking MS was going to ruin the software and utilize it in Windows OS.
Well, that never happened. Softimage was able to produce a solid software application with the help of MS funding.
Ed Knittel
on 07 Nov 07Sounds like a win-win to me.
Dan Bailey
on 07 Nov 07As a Veer contributor, I’ve been told that nothing will change. However, I’ve been told that before, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed and hope that the move will only increase possible sales.
On the buyers’ end of things, Corbis seems to recognize the huge draw that Veer has within the design community. They have said that they will maintain Veer as an independent brand with largely autonomous operations. One possible indication of this being true is that there is no sight of the Corbis logo anywhere on the Veer site.
In this day and age, it was an inevitable thing, and if Corbis sticks to its word, Veer’s customers should not see any difference, except perhaps an increased sales force to handle their growing business.
Cornelius
on 07 Nov 07As long as they don’t change a thing everything will be ok. Veer has a special feel to it. If that gets messed around with by the suits at Corbis then its bye bye Veer.
Cheshire
on 08 Nov 07Veer has a long history of being indie (Image Club), then being acquired (Aldus), then being acquired again (Adobe), then becoming indie again (Eyewire), then being acquired (Getty), then becoming indie again (Veer). The one certain thing appears to be that the next time the company goes indie, the name will have to change again.
Here’s hoping the mood in Calgary really is cheery. I imagine, though, that there’s likely some ambivalence.
This discussion is closed.