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  • Stephen Coles
    Stephen Coles Posts: 1,007
    Interesting category choice, David.
  • Chris Lozos
    Chris Lozos Posts: 1,458
    Great! Now the elephant in the room needs a bigger room!
  • Ramiro Espinoza
    Ramiro Espinoza Posts: 839
    Should we reconsider certain memberships to The Champagne Room? (personally, I don't know)
  • George Thomas
    George Thomas Posts: 645
    I welcome that news at least as much as I would welcome news of another World War -- not at all.
  • Jan Schmoeger
    Jan Schmoeger Posts: 280
    edited July 2014
    FontShop founder Erik Spiekermann, who noted the newest acquisition of Monotype with interest, believes his own FontFonts and those of his colleagues are in good hands: “As a typeface designer who cares deeply about the industry in which I work, I have watched Monotype not merely survive, but grow and prosper. They have become respected experts in the business and the technology of type. Having my typefaces become part of the Monotype foundry will make sure that they, as well as the other FontFonts, will benefit from Monotype’s strengths. The industry-at-large will be stronger once FontShop adds its creative prowess to Monotype’s business.”
  • Chris Lozos
    Chris Lozos Posts: 1,458
    "I have watched Monotype not merely survive, but grow and prosper."
    Indeed they have.
  • Santiago Orozco
    Santiago Orozco Posts: 17
    I have an idea: “IndieTypeDrawers”
  • David Somers
    David Somers Posts: 11
    The elephant is indeed getting bigger... perhaps too big?
  • Nick Shinn
    Nick Shinn Posts: 2,210
    Shinntype distributes through eleven distributors. Monotype now owns Fonts.com, MyFonts, FontShop and Paratype, accounting for around 80% of our retail sales.

    I am concerned that’s too much concentration.

    However, income doesn’t appear to be suffering so far, and we will continue with this business model, rather than working to develop direct sales.
  • Chris Lozos
    Chris Lozos Posts: 1,458
    Nick, can you opt out if you choose and keep all rights to all your work?
  • James Puckett
    James Puckett Posts: 1,995
    At what point will it finally make sense for Adobe to buy Monotype and stick the entire catalog on Typekit?
  • Jackson Showalter-Cavanaugh
    Jackson Showalter-Cavanaugh Posts: 539
    Adobe would need to care enough about the income they get from font licensing and see a substantial opportunity to increase it. Most of Monotype's income is from non-retail licensing so Adobe would have to want to take that on as well (they could bundle PostScript licenses and fonts again!). Adobe appears to be just less than 3x larger than Monotype, so that would be a significant acquisition.
  • James Puckett
    James Puckett Posts: 1,995
    I think it might make sense for Adobe from a different angle: discourage piracy of Creative Cloud by making subscriptions more enticing.

    This leads me to the silver lining of this acquisition: if Adobe can’t or won’t buy Monotype then a very significant portion of important and popular typefaces will remain outside of Typekit.
  • Eric Olson
    Eric Olson Posts: 9
    I suppose what's surprising about this, amongst other things, is the low price.
  • Nick Shinn
    Nick Shinn Posts: 2,210
    Yes, Chris.
  • Chris Lozos
    Chris Lozos Posts: 1,458
    Glad to hear you have options, Nick et al.
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • Chris Lozos
    Chris Lozos Posts: 1,458
    makes one pause to speculate true market value.
  • Ramiro Espinoza
    Ramiro Espinoza Posts: 839
    I stoped believing in gurus looooooong time ago.
  • Nick Shinn
    Nick Shinn Posts: 2,210
    edited July 2014
    I speculate that the low price is a result of FontShop’s not being as good as MyFonts at retail marketing. Shinntype has the same fonts distributed through both, yet MyFonts generates ten times the revenue. And most of this is from typefaces that were designed over ten years ago.

    Accordingly, I would expect sales of lesser-known FontFonts to increase, following the acquisition.
  • Stephen Coles
    Stephen Coles Posts: 1,007
    edited July 2014
    — Redacted by myself. Irrelevant to the discussion. —
  • Eric Olson
    Eric Olson Posts: 9
    It could be marketing, though convenience can't be ignored either. Myfonts simply has a lot of stuff in one place. I don't have the 10 to 1 revenue discrepancy that Nick does, but I can report a 2 to 1 difference we've tracked over a span of 8 years.
  • Eric Olson
    Eric Olson Posts: 9
    Oops. Should mention the royalty rates are slightly different with Myfonts being lower on the old school grandfathered rate vs. 40% with FS.
  • Matthew Butterick
    Matthew Butterick Posts: 143
    edited July 2014
    Seriously though, congratulations to them. FontShop has been a labor of love since it started — a confederacy of typomaniacs, sharing their enthusiasm — and has thereby been the catalyst for a lot of beautiful typefaces & typography over the last 25 years, both through its own library and by nurturing the careers of others.

    When I was an aspiring type designer, so much of FontShop’s early output struck me as transmissions from an advanced alien culture — the Fuse fonts, the FontShop catalog, the early FontFonts. It all encouraged me to work harder & get better. Many others too, I’m sure. I’ve never had anything but positive interactions with the folks there. I wish them all well.
  • Albert_Jan_Pool
    Albert_Jan_Pool Posts: 79
    So sad to hear that Polytype has just become history …
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/albert-jan_pool/14664543601/
  • LeMo aka PatternMan aka Frank E Blokland
    LeMo aka PatternMan aka Frank E Blokland Posts: 723
    Marketing director Ivo Gabrowitsch on the FontFeed: ‘The limited FontShop budget presents a great challenge for our project and its many planned innovations. With Monotype backing us, ongoing development is strengthened significantly. Our customers will profit from this already in the medium-term.’

    It cannot be excluded that in a changing and increasingly competitive market this simply is a necessary move to secure FontShop’s future as brand and company.
  • Nick Shinn
    Nick Shinn Posts: 2,210
    I may have exaggerated with the 10 to one ratio. FontShop did a promotion for the release of Bodoni Egyptian Pro a couple of years ago which was hugely successful, and I thank them for it. The point I am making is that there is a distinction between new releases and back catalog. Most foundries and retailers make a big marketing push with new releases, for obvious reasons, but whatever, MyFonts does very well for me with old fonts that are not advertised. (Some of that no doubt has to do with the fact that I refer potential customers there.) I wouldn’t want to generalize, I’m just sharing my experience and theorizing as to why those 25,000 fonts didn’t realize as much as they would seem to be worth.

    This has nothing to do with dealing with FSI, which I’ve done for 20 years as FontFont designer, and ten years with them as Shinntype distributor—they are always pleasant, obliging, meticulous and prompt, a paragon of business practice. It’s just that IMO their web store has always been a step behind. (Says the man whose own site has been “under construction” for years!)
  • Matthew Butterick
    Matthew Butterick Posts: 143
    Adobe appears to be just less than 3x larger than Monotype, so that would be a significant acquisition.
    FWIW, Adobe’s market capitalization is about $36.1 billion; Monotype’s is about $1.1 billion = more like 33x bigger.

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