Autodesk Acquires Online Photo Editor Pixlr

Web Friends Photos altered with Pixlr-o-matic, a free online image editing tool.

Design software giant Autodesk has acquired Pixlr, a free online service for creating, editing, and sharing images. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Founded in Sweden by entrepreneur Ola Sevandersson, three-year-old Pixlr has been likened to a browser-based Instagram. The site offers a trio of Flash-based applications—Pixlr Editor, Pixlr Express, and Pixlr-o-matic—as well as a screengrabbing tool and one-click photo sharing. Sevandersson, who has joined San Francisco-based Autodesk in the wake of the acquisition, focused on speed and ease of use in developing Pixlr. So what changes are in store for Autodesk-owned Pixlr? “Nothing, nada, zip,” wrote Sevandersson on the Pixlr blog earlier this week. “The people at Autodesk believe in the stuff we have done so far, and we are going to be free enough to still deliver kick-ass products. We are however going to be more people working on the service, so better, more stable and new products are going to be the result.” Autodesk plans to use Pixlr to provide image editing for its consumer products, such as SketchBook.

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