User:Threeriverguy/Silverwire

Silverwire was formed in 2003 as a merger of FotoWire, ShareAPhoto and Silverlab to supply Internet sharing and printing software and services to retail customers.

FotoWire was founded 1998 by Alan Tawil-Kummerman, ..., in Geneva, Switzerland as a VC backed startup. Solely focusing on providing Online Photo Ordering Tools for existing photo industry customers, the company had success winning worldwide customers, but did not gain enough traction to achieve profitability. After several financing rounds the Board decided to hire a new CEO, Ulf Claesson, who suggested a merger to achieve an entity with critical mass.

Silverlab Software was founded 1998 by Markus Nigrin and Martin Schwarz in Passau, Germany. Silverlab grew entirely self-financed to a size of 25 employees with an offering of Photo Kiosk Software, Photo Production Workflow and Online Photo Ordering Tools. With its complementary product offering and customer base, Silverlab was considered first choice to merge with Fotowire. Nigrin and Schwarz wanted to take the company to the next level and agreed to merge on equal basis with Fotowire.

ShareAPhoto was started 1999 as a UK based company, focusing on Online Photo Album Technology as their primary business model. As the third and smallest merging entity they added critical album technology to what was subsequently named Silverwire.

Silverwire grew to 70 employees with a worldwide customer base, gaining the attention of HP which decided to enter the retail photo market with its newly formed Retail Photo Solutions Group. On June 6, 2006 HP announced a definitive agreement to acquire Silverwire Holding AG. Silverwire was integrated into the Retail Photo Solutions Group within the Imaging and Printing Group at HP. Silverwire was the second company based in Europe that HP aquired after Pixaco being the first one.

Trivia:

The use of the word Silver in both Silverlab and Silverwire is a play on the most prominent component of analog photo film, Silverhalid, a media that got quickly obsolete by the rise of digital photography, fueled by the work of companies like Silverwire.

(1) http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2006/060606xa.html

(2) http://news.cnet.com/HP-to-buy-Silverwire/2110-1014_3-6080539.html

(3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acquisitions_by_Hewlett-Packard