By Katie Marsal
Published: 04:00 PM EST (01:00 PM PST)
Apple Computer has acquired Silicon Color, a San Diego, Calif.-based company responsible for developing FinalTouch color correction software.
Following the sale, which was
first reported by
MacNN, Apple will be responsible for honoring all maintenance agreements held by current Silicon Color customers until they expire.
Under the terms of the deal, the Mac maker also acquired the rights to all Silicon Color technology as well as its intellectual property.
"We are pleased to announce that all Silicon Color technology and intellectual property, including FinalTouch color correction software, was recently sold to Apple," reads a message on the Silicon Color website. "Maintenance agreements held by current Silicon Color customers will be honored by Apple until they expire."
Financial details about the acquisition were not made public.
Silicon Color had a strong reputation for catering to video professionals through its FinalTouch 2K, FinalTouch HD, and FinalTouch SD packages.
The FinalTouch 2K package, priced at $25,000, was designed for the demanding needs of professional film colorists, offering direct support for 10-bit, log-encoded Cineon and DPX files without requiring time consuming conversion or proxy-generation steps.
A scaled down version of the software, called FinalTouch HD, retailed for $5000 and interfaced with Apple's Final Cut Pro video editing software via XML. The package included direct support for QuickTime media while offering many of the same features as its larger sibling.
The most recent product to come out of Silicon Color was a $1000 software package called FinalTouch SD. Designed for production facilities that have yet moved to high-definition, it offered color correction for users working with DV-CAM, Digi-Beta, or any other SD format.
Apple next year is expected to roll the assets it acquired from Silicon Color into the next-generation of its Final Cut Studio digital video editing suite.
