March 20, 2014

Autodesk acquires Creative Market

Software giant Autodesk recently announced its acquisition of design startup Creative Market. The purchase suggests that Autodesk may be trying to compete with companies like Adobe in providing tools for the design community. Financial details about the merger were not disclosed. 

San Francisco-based Creative Market was founded 10 years ago and powers an online marketplace for digital design content like fonts, icons and WordPress themes. Designers offer the products for free or sell them through an exchange. 

Darius Monsef, Creative Market's co-founder and CEO wrote in a blog post that the company had many other acquisition offers, but ultimately went with Autodesk because it provided the most resources for growth.

"When I first spoke to the folks at Autodesk, I was impressed with their vision and where they saw an opportunity to develop a more consumer-focused offering to take their decades of design experience," Monsef wrote. "[…] As a creative, I've always been in awe of the incredible work that folks are able to create with AutoCAD, Maya and Autodesk's other professional design tools."

It's likely that Creative Market has as much to offer Autododesk as the the AutoCAD maker has to offer the startup. According to TechCrunch, Creative Market recently launched a Photoshop extension that will allow users to buy and sell content within Photoshop's mobile application. Through this technology acquisition, Autodesk will have direct access to a new group of professionals who regularly use Adobe products. 

Creative Market also gives Autodesk another product to add to its growing cloud-based services business. It would attract design and creative professionals as well as Autodesk's current client base in the engineering an manufacturing industries.