 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (June 2007) |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software |
| Founded | 1991 |
| Founder | Alvy Ray Smith, Eric Lyons, Nicholas Clay |
| Fate | Acquired by Microsoft |
| Headquarters | Mill Valley, California, U.S. |
| Products | Altamira Composer |
| Parent | Microsoft (1994–) |
Altamira Software was an American software company. The company developed Altamira Composer, an early object-based image editing and composition application for Windows that introduced features such as anti-aliased effects and image sprites. Altamira Software was acquired by Microsoft in 1994.
History
[edit]Altamira Software was founded in Mill Valley, California by Dr. Alvy Ray Smith, Eric Lyons and Nicholas Clay in 1991.[1]
Seed capital came from Autodesk and second-round financing from a team of venture capitalists (TVI) and private individuals.
The company was acquired by Microsoft in 1994.[2][3] Thea Grigsby was Vice President of Marketing. David Shantz of WildOutWest, LLC was responsible for branding, package design and the development of a series of image object libraries that were released along with the product.
Products
[edit]The company's primary product was Altamira Composer. This PC based software pioneered object-based drawing and image editing. Composer was one of the first to bring important tools such as anti-aliased effects and image sprites to the desktop.[citation needed]
Altamira Composer, one of the first image composition applications with image sprites (i.e., non-rectangular, floating images), entered the market in November 1993 (CoSA After Effects 1.0 shipped in January of that same year).
References
[edit]- ^ "Altamira Software Overview". Mergr. Retrieved 2025-11-17.
- ^ "Microsoft Acquires Altamira Software". Mergr. 1994-09-27. Retrieved 2025-11-17.
- ^ "Microsoft Investor Relations - Acquisitions". Microsoft. Archived from the original on 2006-11-06. Retrieved 2007-10-12.
