Monotype buys MyFonts

[eliason]

This topic was imported from the Typophile platform

"Monotype Imaging acquired the font business of rival Bitstream for about 50 million in cash, a move that gives it greater clout in the world of digital typography."

What consequences do you see?

[HVB]

It's another 'captive' distributor. I would see them doing the same thing that Google does - raising their own products to the top of lists such as search responses, 'more like this' lists, etc.

But look on the bright side. At least it wasn't Microsoft that bought it!

- Herb

[Riccardo Sartori]

Craig, we already had this discussion:
https://typography.guru/forums/topic/87045-forwarding#comment-483579

[Riccardo Sartori]

For my part, I've seen fewer fonts sold at MyFonts and a decline in performance in their WhatTheFont server.

[eliason]

Oh yeah, I thought this all seemed familiar!

[Mark Simonson]

Riccardo, do you sell a lot of fonts there? I haven't noticed anything like that.

[Riccardo Sartori]

Sorry, I meant that the offering seems to have shrunk. At least regarding Monotype's own typefaces (which now still aren't sold by MyFonts even in Adobe's versions).

[hrant]

Yes, better Monotype than Microsoft, but
that's not fair to the largest company that
actually cares about typography. Really,
it has been the 90s for a while now.

hhp

[eliason]

@riccard0 I think they've just been added back, actually.

[Riccardo Sartori]

Yes, it looks that some of them have been added back (still no Helvetica Neue, for example). We will see how it turns out, I suppose.

[eliason]

Maybe there's not Helvetica Neue, but there is Neue Helvetica!

[Riccardo Sartori]

A couple more acquisitions, and we will have Unica too! ;-)

[5star]

I noticed today that Mono's shares are trading about 3 bucks above their '07 IPO value (?)

And they achieved that without a Obama bailout / handout :)

Whether or not Monotype's strategy is good or bad for the average bezier bandit I don't know, but I hope it is.

Bezier Bandit, lol.

[hrant]

BTW, FWIW, I recently had an exchange with Monotype
concerning some ancient Linotype royalties, and they
handled my request with extreme grace and kindness.

hhp

[Mark Simonson]

Riccardo, Linotype and Monotype fonts were pulled from MyFonts about a year ago (I don't remember exactly), apparently because MyFonts was doing so well that more Lino/Mono fonts were being sold there than on the Lino/Mono sites, with MyFonts taking a cut. Now that they are one company, they are back, as one would expect.

I wonder how soon I will lose my top spot on the MyFonts best sellers page now that Helvetica is back.

[Nick Shinn]

Dude, you would still be top of the indie charts, man.
Way more cred.
Uh, if they had one...

[dezcom]

I have noticed a drop in sales since the Monotype buyout. It appears that the number of times my fonts appear on the front page is off significantly. I used to randomly see my fonts on the front page about as often as anyone else. Now, I have not seen them there at all. I am not saying anything is amiss, perhaps there have been so many new people that the odds are far less. I do see some fonts there more frequently than the odds would seem right.

[hrant]

Wow, there really was no Helvetica on MyFonts for a while?!
How cool is that.

BTW, this maneuvering seems quite revealing. If Mono/Lino
did indeed pull out of MyFonts because they thought they were
losing too much to MF's cut (maybe they assumed people buy
their fonts "with intent", as opposed to "running into" them on
places like MyFonts; or maybe they underestimated people's
comfort with shopping at MF) but then they came around to
buy MF, they must have noticed a marked drop is sales in the
interim. Which means MF really works. I guess $50M sort of
indicates that too...

hhp

[dezcom]

That 5oM is a sure sign ;-)