Autodesk Acquires Pixlr

Autodesk, Inc announced today that it has completed the acquisition of Pixlr, a popular free* online and social image creating, collecting, editing and sharing service. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The Pixlr service was started in Sweden in August 2008 and provides accessible tools for non-professionals to create, edit, and share images online and socially via platforms like Facebook. The acquisition enhances Autodesk’s ability to provide image editing for its consumer products, such as the SketchBook product line. As a result of the acquisition, SketchBook Pro desktop users will gain the ability to read and write image file formats such as PXD and to easily exchange files while maintaining deep data such as layers. Current Pixlr users will immediately be able to add more freehand sketching to their projects through file compatibility with Autodesk SketchBook Pro desktop application.

“Lots of people–not just creative professionals—want to express themselves visually,” said Samir Hanna, vice president of Consumer Products at Autodesk. “Combining image editing capabilities with sketching capabilities provides new avenues for rich visual expression. We also intend to marry the Pixlr team’s web development experience with our expertise in mobile app development to help people everywhere be creative on the devices of their choice.”

Pixlr’s founders are now part of Autodesk.

Business Outlook

This transaction is expected to have no impact on guidance issued on June 29, 2011.