Tech Soft 3D relaunches Adobe's TTF libraries in July

It had been rumoured for many months, and now the two are admitting it. Adobe has xferred its xlators to Tech Soft 3D, who says that...

...the ex-TTF office and employees stay in Lyons.
...related Adobe staff are to be hired by Tech Soft 3D.
...the PDF 3D publisher SDK and translators will be renamed and relaunched in July.
...Adobe will continue to support 3D in Acrobat, but you now need to get the translators through Tech Soft 3D.

Source

Comments

["Adobe Investor"]

Ralph, your rumor tip a month ago seems to have been spot-on. Adobe did not disclose any financial information for the transaction. Why?

Is it because it is not material to their results?

Maybe because they did not want investors to know they lost $30 plus millions in this ill-fated, hubris-led, ill-conceived, diversification attempt?

Or maybe they did not want to highlight the failure of 3DPDF and even Livecycle as products and the utter rejection by the mfg community?

Kumar Vora (VP, 2010) seems to be "confident that Tech Soft 3D is the right partner to continue to develop the 3D translator technology that helps our customers get their valuable 3D data into PDF" .

Ah, just like Tom Hale (SVP, in 2006) was confident that "the key technology and expertise we gain from TTF will help enable Adobe to provide manufacturing organizations ...".

[long live 3D PDF]

ahh if only all investments came with zero risk and a guarantee of success, eh "Adobe Investor"? Maybe you should move to Russia

[Anon]

So.. data converters aren't profitable. News at eleven.

["Adobe Investor"]

Long Live 3D PDF, here are the facts that even someone in Russia can find on the web: from the time Tom Hale made his announcement to today, the Adobe stock gained ...........5%. By comparison, Apple (yes, the same Apple that didnt want to support Flash in the iPAD product) gained 500+% ! Better yet, chart the stock price to see how Adobe has fared in these last 4 years against Apple. Might you say \'pathetic\'?

You still want to call 3DPDF an \"investment\"? Get real. Be a man and admit that Adobe flushed $30M down the tubes in this misguided adventure. They would do us investors a world of good by focusing on what makes money.

[long live 3D PDF]

Why stop at the TTF acquisition "Adobe Investor"? The 3D strategy was hatched long before with the ill-fated Atmosphere group and don't forget 3D Capture via the OKYZ acquisition. So the real number invested is likely $65M+. My point is that investments are risky and don't always work out the way you want--as these certainly didn't. No try no glory.

Adobe's taking its lumps and exiting a space it really isn't cut out for and doing it in a way that leaves room, albeit risky (there's that word again), there could still be long term upside for Acrobat and Livecycle and let's not forget the customers who have chosen to make 3D PDF part of their business process.

Are you equating Adobe's 5% stock gain to the ill-fated 3D strategy? it was really a tiny drop in the bucket compared to the Macromedia acquisition which happend after the initial foray into 3D. Adobe's betting the farm on internet video which may or may not work out. Hale didn't hatch the 3D plan, which may have been part of the problem as he was one of many who failed to understand the complexities of what 3D means to the manufacturing community. It was conceived long before he arrived. if your point is that Adobe the 3D try was just another in a string of misguided investments, you may have a point, but I think it is too early to tell.