san rafael california 1990s headquarters san francisco california parent adobe systems website scene7.com scene7 is an american software company that provides document hosting and interactive publishing services such as online catalogs targeted email video and image management . retailers use the company s services to showcase products on their websites and to allow customers to manipulate product images by zooming in and rotating products simulating the inspection of merchandise in retail stores . the company was founded as a division of autodesk . the division was sold to broderbund in 1998 then spun off as a company called goodhome.com in june 1999 . after goodhome.com failed to become profitable it was reorganized and renamed scene7 . scene7 formally launched in 2001 . the company focused on helping companies prepare interactive advertisements for consumers . scene7 was acquired by adobe systems in 2007 for an undisclosed sum . contents 1 profile 2 history 2.1 goodhome.com mid 1990s to 2000 2.2 reorganization 2001 to 2005 2.3 acquisition 2007 2008 3 references 4 external links profile edit harrods flagship store in london where scene7 allows visitors to harrods website to interact with product images . a subsidiary of adobe systems scene7 provides document hosting and interactive publishing services 1 typically charging clients 30 000 to 50 000 a year to convert catalog print files to interactive web pages . the company does most of its business in north america . its primary competitors for dynamic imaging services and technology are richfx and liquidpixels . 2 3 scene7 products rely on several adobe products including adobe photoshop adobe indesign adobe flash adobe illustrator and adobe flex ; this relationship existed before adobe purchased the company . 4 scene7 does not maintain any servers to host its services ; instead it uses a pay as you grow program that only requires it to pay for the resources that it uses . 5 scene7 s clients include the companies sears lands end harrods macy s office depot levi strauss & co. la z boy and qvc . 4 in 2001 scene7 agreed to develop home design and landscaping software for individual software for 50 million . 6 high end casual clothing retailer anthropologie has used scene7 s services to create and deploy online catalogs for its e commerce website since november 9 2004 . the retailer implemented scene7 s dynamic imaging service to let customers zoom in on products similar to how merchandise is inspected in retail stores . 7 the harrods department store signed an agreement with scene7 on june 24 2005 to use scene7 s imaging and catalog system on the store s website . this required harrods to convert all its printed material to a digital format for internet use . 8 history edit goodhome.com mid 1990s to 2000 edit mattel s headquarters in el segundo california . the company owned scene7 for a year before spinning it off as goodhome.com . the company began as a development team that created software called picture this home in the mid 1990s for autodesk in san rafael california . 9 the program allowed people to virtually preview room decoration projects before any work began . users could create virtual rooms change walls and arrange furniture and create photo realistic renderings of completed designs . picture this home was awarded the good housekeeping seal of approval . 10 in 1998 the software and its team of 40 developers were sold to broderbund which was owned by the learning company a subsidiary of mattel inc. broderbund eventually spun picture this home off as a company called goodhome.com in june 1999 . the company received 30 million in venture capital from hearst interactive media . 9 in september 1999 goodhome.com merged with alexandria virginia based nhabit.com a rival company for an undisclosed sum . 11 after the merger goodhome.com was assured that it would grow quickly ; the merger also added the internet service provider america online to goodhome.com s portfolio as a client . 12 ten weeks after forming a business plan goodhome.com officially launched on september 29 1999 13 with offices in san rafael and new york city new york 14 and roger horchow was assigned as its chairman . 11 the company used the slogan a beautiful home . it was never this easy 15 and focused on selling furniture and other home items 9 spending 20 million on advertisements in its first year . 14 mack decided that the company should target women 15 since women make 80 percent of decorating decisions . 14 the company built a home furnishings portal to compete with the websites living.com and furniture.com which both went bankrupt in 2000 . 9 in april 2000 goodhome.com s monthly sales topped 1 million ; the company s goal was to be profitable within two to three years . 16 one of the website s biggest attractions was its virtual decorating service that let customers see how certain features such as the paint upholstery fabric rugs and pillows would look before a purchase . when considering why this service was so popular mack noted that consumers usually feel more confident in a purchase when there are few unknowns . at the time selling products over the internet was not a popular concept outside the united states but mack was confident in expanding goodhome.com s portfolio to include foreign companies we re already getting so many requests from companies about expanding our website abroad ... i see this happening quickly within the next few years . 12 goodhome.com encountered difficulties in running its business in 2000 when several other companies that offered similar services launched . the increasing demand for online catalog services considered a phenomenon was dubbed the hottest thing since sliced bread by an analyst from technology research firm forrester research which estimated that roughly 500 million was invested in home furnishing websites from 1999 to 2000 . 17 it became difficult for consumers to decide which service provided better quality ; a business owner commented you can t tell the difference in quality between something that s 3 000 and something that s 10 000 . 17 goodhome.com which had offered free shipping phased out the feature on july 15 2000 in favor of heavily subsidized rates . 17 to compete with new companies goodhome.com also introduced new features such as a floor planning feature to allow website visitors build an electronic version of their rooms then drag in furnishings to see how they fit . 17 hearst corporation based in new york city provided two rounds of funding for scene7 30 million in 1999 and 15 million in 2001 . reorganization 2001 to 2005 edit after spending several years operating at a loss goodhome.com reorganized under the name scene7 which formally launched in january 2001 with 15 million raised from investors that included hearst interactive media . the new company focused on helping companies prepare interactive advertisements for consumers . 18 mack the broderbund executive who had decided to spin off the company reflected on the decision to reorganize and relaunch we got a year into the initial goodhome scheme and the whole b2c business to consumer market tanked and we realized we could not build a successful business as a portal ... but the whole time we kept having people approach us to license the technology to create virtual catalogs and finally a light bulb went off when we realized we were sitting on top of a great technology we could sell . 9 scene7 raised a round of financing on july 12 2001 that totaled 11.3 million which helped stabilize the company . the deal was led by venture capitalists from several firms including louis bacon s moore capital management and xcelera of the cayman islands with cash investments from cooley godward and perkins coie . 9 after the latest round of financing mack planned for scene7 to have 15 clients and a burn rate or negative cash flow of less than 700 000 a month stating what we learned was to stick to your strategy and don t get nervous when the competition is adopting a strategy to spend their way to victory . 19 at the time the company s revenues were well below its peak of 1 million a month but mack intended to increase revenues past that point in a few months . 19 scene7 moved from san rafael to hamilton landing in novato california in september 2002 to accommodate more employees . 20 on july 9 2003 the company acquired all of the assets of workflow provider and advertising software company engage for 1.2 million and assumed its 650 000 debt after engage filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy . 21 engage was the parent company of both cascade and midsystems which were two of the first companies that tried to automate prepress production for newspapers and large printers . 22 on august 15 2003 scene7 acquired its top competitor truespectra of san mateo for an undisclosed amount of cash and stock . 20 on june 15 2004 scene7 raised 7.5 million in another round of financing led by home shopping company qvc with some of scene7 s existing investors . at the same time jeffrey branman president of interactive technology partners at qvc and david rubenstein co founder of the private equity firm the carlyle group joined scene7 s board of directors which was composed of james caccavo of moore capital andrew wright of realnetworks and mack . 23 since the early 2000s the company s growth has been fueled by an increase in broadband internet access which loads virtual catalogs faster than dial up internet access . when catalogs first appeared online in the late 1990s the graphics took too long to load . after high speed internet access became more popular virtual catalogs quickly grew to become a popular feature of online stores . 3 in addition to faster internet connectivity a study in 2000 noted that an online presence for brick and mortar businesses increased offline sales by an average of 27 % . mack also pointed out that having more product information disseminated helps play a role in increasing sales we have the ability to provide consistent information ... one of the advantages of selling furniture online is the hyperscript ; you always have the original specifications on a product . 12 acquisition 2007 2008 edit adobe systems based in san jose california acquired scene7 to help boost its overall services strategy . scene7 was acquired by adobe systems on may 31 2007 for an undisclosed sum . at that time scene7 had 80 employees most of whom were transferred from scene7 s former headquarters in novato california 4 to adobe s offices in san francisco california . 24 mack joined adobe as its vice president of creative solutions services . scene7 was added to adobe s product line as a hosted service to help boost adobe s overall services strategy 1 especially its software as a service efforts 4 and because scene7 was a great fit due to its heavy usage of adobe products . 1 adobe plans to integrate scene7 s products into adobe livecycle the company s suite of server software products at an unspecified time . 1 the scene7 brand will continue to be used but it will eventually be replaced with the adobe brand . 4 denmark based yawah a dynamic imaging software company was acquired by adobe on september 26 2008 to help expand scene7 globally . 25 references edit a b c d taft darryl k. 2007 10 03 . adobe readies new servers services tools . eweek . retrieved 2008 11 14 . case studies testimonials & links . mind 2 image . retrieved 2011 07 27 . a b tedeschi bob 2004 06 15 . fast access brings virtual catalogs back . the new york times . a b c d e scene7 acquisition pdf . adobe systems