Image Management Company Acquired

The June 2006 acquisition of iView Multimedia gives Microsoft technology that could be used to add sophisticated digital image management capabilities to Expression (Microsoft’s emerging line of software for graphics professionals) and to enable better organization of digital media files in Windows. However, Microsoft has not confirmed any details related to the acquisition, including its plans for iView’s products.

MediaPro, iView’s main product, enables professional designers to import, export, catalog, and manipulate large libraries of digital images (a single MediaPro catalog can contain up to 128,000 images, and an unlimited number of catalogs may be created with the software). Among other benefits, MediaPro supports more than 100 file formats, including the native (RAW) formats for many popular digital cameras.

MediaPro is available for both Mac and PC, while a consumer-oriented version of the program, iView Media, is available for the Mac only. The company also distributes a free program called Catalog Reader that allows users without MediaPro or Media to browse iView catalogs. According to iView founder Yannis Calotychos, Microsoft will continue to offer and support the Mac versions of iView’s products, and purchasers of current iView products will get discounts on future Microsoft products that include iView technology.