22 April 2015
The photo lab that is fishing for Snap dollars
Another bite at Snapfish
‘District Photo’ is about to snap-up online photo storage to print site Snapfish from Hewlett-Packard for an undisclosed sum, reports the Financial Times under the headline “HP throws photo service Snapfish overboard”. Palo Alto, California based HP has been trying for some time to spin off its printing business from the rest for the hardware and service operations. As the news of the Snapfish deal broke, HP shares fell another one percent on the New York stock exchange. ‘District Photo Inc’ of Beltville is associated with Devon based ‘Harrier LLC’ with which it has been operating ‘Truprint’ and is serving the budget end of the British photo printing market.
For ‘District Photo Inc’, a 65 year old company, it’s another bite at Snapfish, which it originally acquired in late 2001, when District Photo was struggling to digest the transition from an analog film-developing lab to a digital lab. According to SiliconNews, HP had acquired Snapfish in 2005 for US$300 million.
Business Insider: After years of trying, HP sells Snapfish
It is worth remembering that HP has used its once deep pockets for acquisitions in the past. In 2011 HP paid a 79% premium to acquire ‘Autonomy Corporation plc’ of Cambridge for £7.4 billion. The Wall Street Journal reports that “H-P” last month agreed to buy ‘Aruba Networks Inc’ for US$2.7 billion.
HP Unhooks Snapfish
Sources familiar with the Snapfish the deal suggest that it covers staff and technology, but will bind ‘District Photo’ to HP printing equipment.
HP acquired Ness Ziona, Israel based ‘Indigo Digital Press’ in 2001 for just $680 million, which is now the dominant film and plate free j-i-t print process, popular with printers of photo books. ‘Indigo’ claims to have 4000 customers for its digital presses worldwide.
Labels: District Photo, HP, Indigo, mergers and acquisitions, photo books, photo printing, Snapfish, Truprint
16 June 2014
Fragmented photo print industry undergoing concentration through acquisitions
FotoInsight takes over smaller rival website www.printing-1.co.uk
Cambridge. 16 June 2014. - In 2007, IITM LLP started a service for the creation and print of personalized photo books, canvas prints and photographic wall calendars under the name ‘Printing-1’. This web presence expanded into a number of European countries in seven languages. The business has now been taken over by FotoInsight Ltd. for an undisclosed sum and the www.printing-1.co.uk websites redirect to http://fotoinsight.co.uk.
For IITM LLP Designated Partner CM states: ‘The online photo printing industry is experiencing rapid concentration. We are confident that printing-1 customer’s will like the award winning software and print quality that FotoInsight offers, which has won top awards in review by consumer magazines, the photographic press across the UK and Europe, as well as by the Gadget Show.’
Welcome Voucher
Celebrating the successful acquisition of Printing-1 FotoInsight is issuing welcome vouchers. Photo enthusiasts who now download the FotoInsight Designer software and order their first real photo book from FotoInsight before 30 September 2014 get £9 off by using the voucher code PRINT1UK (minimum order value £25).
Labels: FotoInsight, mergers and acquisitions, photo printing, photographic industry, print, Printing-1, takeover
