A screenshot from the Socialcam app — the Instagram of video
Autodesk, the company that sells professional enterprise design software to architects, just paid $60 million to acquire Socialcam, a social video-sharing app that has quickly amassed more than 50 million users on Facebook by making it easy to watch shaky videos shared by athletes.
Wait, what?
This unlikely union has confounded the design and tech communities. The pairing of pro engineering tools and social video seems like a classic “Meatball Sundae” — two delicious foods that make no sense together. Detractors joke that someone on the Autodesk M&A team mistakenly thought “cam” stood for “Computer Aided Manufacturing.”
While people are quick to criticize the deal, many of the same comments were made when Autodesk acquired DIY how-to site Instructables. People feared it would be the end of the site and that it didn’t make sense in a CAD company’s portfolio, but it continues to flourish nearly a year later.
Autodesk has also released a bunch of great software for a variety of platforms that fall outside their standard offerings. Perhaps their road map is more ambitious than naysayers believe?
Instead of mocking the pairing, ask “Who will Autodesk buy next?” Here are three guesses:
GrabCad – GrabCad is either the “Github for CAD” or the “99 Designs for Mechanical Engineering,” depending on who you ask. In either case there is a natural overlap between the two companies. If Autodesk bought GrabCad they could rebrand it as a cloud-based version control system or a community to help their users find more jobs.
A 3-D printer would be the ultimate Autodesk peripheral. Photo: MakerBot
MakerBot – 3D Systems, one of the larger 3-D printing companies is on a tear, acquiring small companies that consumerize CAD. Why shouldn’t Autodesk buy up a prosumer 3-D printer company? Buying MakerBot, or one of its cooler resin-based 3-D cousins, would make perfect sense and give hobbyists a way to preserve all the things they make with Autodesk software.
Turning CAD into a game was a brilliant move by Minecraft, One Autodesk should learn from.
Minecraft – Minecraft has figured out how to turn CAD into a game. It would be a perfect way to onboard the next generation of CAD jocks in a fun and social way.
Think these sound unlikely? Sound off in the comments and let us know who you think Autodesk should buy next!
