I agree with Ned because the profits need by a company to stay in business and the profit margins needed by VC to not sell the technology are significantly different.
Randy S. Little http://www.rslittle.com <http://reel.rslittle.com> On Tue, Apr 12, 2011 at 15:06, Ned Wilson <[email protected]> wrote: > Rant ON: > > Well the Foundry is a business, which at the end of the day, has to make > people money. I would imagine that given the amount of expansion and new > development that has been going on, that the company was in need of > additional capital, if for no other reason than to fund continuing > development efforts and expand into new markets. > > I'm thinking that it might be difficult to make money in this business. At > the end of the day, the R&D cost is through the roof, and the market is very > small for end-users, a niche market at best. > > One thing that scares me about the Carlyle group is that they are in > business ONLY to make money for their investment partners. As time goes on, > they are going to insist that the Foundry turn double digit profits, or face > closure, or fire sale. Maintenance is only the beginning, really. Bring up > the cost of maintenance by a little bit, and see what the market will bear. > As time goes on the cost of doing business for the Foundry increases. > Fluctuation in the exchange rates, programmer salaries, office space rental, > even small items like food and power, all increase year over year. So I > think the market will consider it acceptable for the rates to go up, and > they will be paid, because nearly every major VFX house on the planet has > made an investment in Nuke. > > Here is the part that scares me. Maintenance on Nuke costs $1,000 per year > right now. Obviously, the Foundry needs to increase this by $X per year to > cover their increased cost of business. The market, on the other hand, is > willing to tolerate an increase of $Y. If $Y is greater than $X, the Carlyle > group is going to want to charge $Y, since they are a business solely > motivated by return on investment. I just hope that the desire for profits > doesn't negatively affect the Foundry in other ways. I hope that we won't > see a reduction in customer service, adverse working conditions for the > developers, holds on salary increases, increased product cost, etc. etc. > > The Foundry is a company that was established to serve the post production > community with initially a fantastic set of plugins, and now, a great > compositing package. The post production community has rewarded the Foundry > with giving it market domination in compositing. Now, when a private equity > firm invests, they become in charge. The post production community could > potentially be at their mercy, because Nuke adoption has become widespread > and there isn't a lot of competition in the space right now. > > At the end of the day, I hope that the Foundry doesn't become corporate, > and that the focus isn't entirely profit-motivated. I hope that the soul of > the company remains, and that they provide tools that help make what is in > people's imaginations a reality. > > Rant OFF. > > -n > > > On Apr 12, 2011, at 11:40 AM, Christopher Noellert wrote: > > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlyle_Group > > > > Perhaps you've seen Fahrenheit 911? > > > > Best, > > Chris > > > > -- > > PublicVFX > > Chris Noellert > > 69 Market Street, Venice, CA, 90291 > > 310.450.6969 o > > 310.450.6999 f > > 310.699.2151 c > > [email protected] > > aim: [email protected] > > http://www.publicvfx.com > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > On Apr 12, 2011, at 11:36 AM, Eddie Offermann wrote: > > > >> I think I'd rather have a better resource for information about them > than Chuck Baldwin. > >> > >> Got anything from somebody that's not a bit of a nutter? > >> > >> On 04/12/2011 07:54 AM, andrei gheorghiu wrote: > >>> Carlyle Group : http://www.covenantnews.com/baldwin030328.htm > >>> > >>> No wonder TheFoundry didn't post anything about this on their web > site... > >>> > >>> _______________________________________________ > >>> Nuke-users mailing list > >>> > >>> [email protected] > >>> http://support.thefoundry.co.uk/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nuke-users > >>> > >>> > >>> > >> > >> > >> -- > >> Eddie Offermann > >> blog: > >> http://eddieoffermann.com/blog/ imdb: > http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2835373/ > >> > >> linkedin: > >> http://www.linkedin.com/pub/1/B00/07B > >> > >> fax: 215-565-3799 - phone: (323) 638-4VFX > >> > >> Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a > >> man to fish and one day he'll trip and fall and put > >> his eye out on a fishing pole and it'll be all your > >> fault. > >> > >> _______________________________________________ > >> Nuke-users mailing list > >> [email protected] > >> http://support.thefoundry.co.uk/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nuke-users > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Nuke-users mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://support.thefoundry.co.uk/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nuke-users > > _______________________________________________ > Nuke-users mailing list > [email protected] > http://support.thefoundry.co.uk/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nuke-users >
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