The transformation of MetaCreations to MetaDestruction came without warning. On December 14th last, when the New York stock market opened, MetaCreations issued a press release announcing it was "to focus solely on e-commerce visualisation solutions". It continued that it was "to divest its graphics software assets that do not complement this strategy. This will result in the reduction of approximately 100 of MetaCreations' personnel". All company press releases are automatically copied to the employees' email so a few minutes later the staff in the Dublin office, where it was lunch time, got an email that effectively told them they were to be made redundant. By Friday five of the 16 staff had gone. The rest are staying until the international operations are wound up.
Sales offices worldwide, plus two of the three US offices, are to close too. It would appear that out of the 250 staff that perhaps only 50 might be left in the New Jersey office to work on MetaStream, the 3D streaming technology that MetaCreations is now betting the future of the company on. Gary Lauer, the chief executive, resigned to take a job with an unnamed company, though he remains as chairman of the board. Mark Zimmer has taken over as CEO.
MetaCreations was formed in 1996 when Fractal Design merged with MetaTools. Fractal's main products were Painter, a drawing program that recreates natural media like oil paint and Poser, which creates poseable people. MetaTools published Kai's Power Tools (KPT), an essential plugin for Photoshop named after Kai Krause, and Bryce, a photorealistic landscape program with a cult following.
The products had beautiful packaging and unique graphical interfaces. Painter, for example, came in a paint tin and its full-colour manuals won three Irish print awards.
MetaCreations had been struggling financially for a few years, but it had appeared that a turn-around was possible. New versions of KPT filters, Bryce and Poser were under development and it was hoped that revenue from MetaStream would help the company's fortunes. With US companies stock price is critical and the company decided that it would appeal more to investors as an Internet venture. After the restructuring the stock rose from $6 to $10.
The future for most of the software is uncertain. It appears that Adobe, Macromedia and Corel are not interested in the products, but some products may have a life after Meta. Bryce is still owned by Eric Wenger, who wrote the original version and MetaCreations only had the rights to the new interface and subsequent code. Likewise for Poser. The original copyright is owned by its writer, Larry Weinberg. With luck someone will rescue the other unique and creative programs before they fade into obscurity.