Mono(poly)type

[Riccardo Sartori]

This topic was imported from the Typophile platform

Ascender Corp. Acquired by Monotype Imaging:

http://www.ascendercorp.com/pr/2010-12-08/

Update 10.Nov.2011, (part of) Bitstream (MyFonts included) Acquired by Monotype Imaging:

https://typography.guru/forums/topic/97262-forwarding

[William Berkson]

Wasn't Ascender started by refugees or defectors from Monotype? What's the story behind the story here?

[Si_Daniels]

Ascender was formed before Agfa sold Monotype Imaging. Perhaps the Ascender founders were trying to avoid visits to Belgium. :-)

[Dunwich Type]

Arial + Comic Sans Rebus FTW!!!

[Nick Shinn]

I have no immediate plans to cash out.
So the monopoly will have to wait.

[quadibloc]

And here I thought someone was trying to identify Kabel.

[Nick Shinn]

LOL.

[Té Rowan]

I'd sooner have guessed (Bhikkhu Pesala's) Kabala in that case.

[vinceconnare]

Buy your Comic Sans 2010 now from Monotype Imaging!

Will there still be April fools jokes?

[andreas]

So every designer or foundry with Ascender contracts will be now a part of the big Monotype univers.

[Té Rowan]

Guess that's the risk of going with the Times.

[Nick Shinn]

Inertia is an easy course of action.
However, I would imagine that most contracts have cancellation clauses.
Or may be renegotiated.

[vinceconnare]

Monotype House

[Riccardo Sartori]

Uhm…
https://typography.guru/forums/topic/97262-forwarding

[hrant]

I'm curious, what do formerly-Bitstream's people in Noida, India do exactly?

hhp

[dezcom]

The "If you can't beat them, buy them out" policy which has been so successful with the banking industry and airline industry seems to be also working quite well to keep the type industry equally healthy.

[William Berkson]

Looks to me like we now have three categories of foundries: 1. the non-designer owned foundries—now only one; 2. The foundries associated with primarily non-type companies—Adobe, Microsoft; 3. Designer-owned foundries.

[dezcom]

Pretty soon, my mortgage, my bank, my airline, and my type will all belong to the same company :-/

[Si_Daniels]

>Pretty soon, my mortgage, my bank, my airline, and my type will all belong to the same company :-/

The United States Federal Government? Don't forget your auto-maker.

[Té Rowan]

Nope. MicroAppleSoft.

[dezcom]

Nope, "The 1% of the 1%"

Si,

The Chinese Government is far more likely than the U.S. Gov ;-)

[Si_Daniels]

After giving this a lot of thought, I think the only way to move forward is for type designers to unionize. The problem will be getting all the dead type designers to join. I think the Mormons may have worked out a solution for that but I'm not entirely sure.

Comrades, are you with me? ;-)

[hrant]

You remember TyD, right?

hhp

[oldnick]

Well, at least the impending merger puts to rest the question of "Who's your Daddy?"

[J.Montalbano]

So $50 million for Bitstream, really MyFonts. Given the multiples that these sales usually work on, that means MyFonts is generating around $13 million a year. The real question, is who is going to buy this Monotype/Agfa/Linotype/ITC/Ascender/Bitstream amalgamation?

It is all venture capital so I can't imagine it will stay in current hands for long. They are interested in making money, not licensing type.