November 06, 2007
I can only find one source at the moment, but it looks like Corbis bought Veer today. This is more stock photo than type industry news, because imagery makes up the bulk of Veer’s sales. I wonder what this will mean for their independence which has propelled them into such success over the last few years. But more importantly for our readers: what is the future of fonts at Veer?
According to the report by The Stock Asylum:
Corbis said the acquisition advances a “strategic marker approach to establish a network of brands to serve different types of customers and accelerate its growth in the commercial space.”
Oh, that clears it up.
It’s no secret that digital type is a not a major money maker. Large organizations like Adobe have gradually shrunk their type activity since the booming ’90s, blaming low profit margins as a cause. This decade has belonged to the independent foundry and lean, innovative resellers like Veer, FontShop, and MyFonts.
Veer has no in-house type design team, as far as I’m aware. So the overhead in the fonts department, is assumedly low. To the designers and buyers of Veer fonts, this news is hopefully benign. But one wonders if a mother-company like Corbis will be down with all the elaborate printed typographic goodies which has made Veer a designer favorite.
Update: Corbis has posted their press release, a masterpiece of buzzphrases and opacity. It does state that “the companies will maintain distinct customer propositions and leverage cross-selling opportunities for Corbis’ industry-leading Rights Services and Veer’s discerning type face collections.”
Update: In a story for PDN, Daryl Lang further confirms that the acquisition won’t make much of a difference to the consumer.
Thanks to Jürgen Siebert for the tip.
See also: Veer Scripts : Veer Acquires Walcott Fonts : Veer Launch
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