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                        Nitro Acquires PDFpen from Smile

   Adam Engst

   Mergers and acquisitions aren't common in the indie developer universe
   around Apple, so I was intrigued when I heard that long-time TidBITS
   sponsor [1]Smile was selling PDFpen to Nitro Software, a company
   specializing in PDF tools in the Windows world. After calls with Smile
   co-founder Philip Goward and Nitro's chief product officer, Sam Thorpe,
   I have a better understanding of the situation.

   Nitro was founded in Australia in 2005 but is now a publicly traded
   company headquartered in San Francisco with over 200 employees around
   the globe. Nitro's focus has always been on PDF tools in the Windows
   world, specifically in the enterprise, where 75% of the documents
   moving through the organization are PDFs. Its research shows that only
   30% of workers have the tools they need to manipulate PDFs, largely due
   to the cost of Adobe Acrobat Pro DC.

   As Macs, iPhones, and iPads have become more prevalent in the
   enterprise, largely as a result of employee-choice and 'bring your own
   device' programs (see '[2]JNUC 2017: A Glimpse into the World of Apple
   Enterprise,' 3 November 2017), the need for Nitro to expand into the
   Apple world became apparent. [3]PDFpen was an obvious choice, and both
   Philip Goward and Sam Thorpe emphasized how the deal was aided by the
   fact that Smile and Nitro have very similar corporate cultures.

   Nitro will pay $6 million in cash for PDFpen, and the entire PDFpen
   team will be joining Nitro. Sam Thorpe noted that Nitro was extremely
   interested in the team's roadmap for PDFpen and appreciation of the
   nuances of developing for Apple-focused customers, so it seems safe to
   say that we shouldn't expect to see significant technical or interface
   changes. The name will also remain the same, though likely with some
   Nitro cobranding. What may change eventually is the licensing model,
   with subscriptions being offered after a few more major releases. Along
   those lines, PDFpen will remain in the [4]Setapp subscription service,
   and Thorpe noted that PDFpen revenue from that source was growing at a
   double-digit rate.

   Where things will change is in the enterprise world. Nitro doesn't
   currently have a solution for Apple users in the enterprise, and PDFpen
   isn't a big player there now. So an enterprise version of PDFpen will
   likely take on the Nitro Pro name and will rely on a subscription
   model, like most other apps in the enterprise space. The recurring
   revenue generated by the subscriptions will help pay for developing the
   integrations with other systems'document signing, analytics, SDKs, and
   so on'that large organizations find compelling.

   From Smile's perspective, the PDFpen acquisition allows the company to
   focus on its [5]TextExpander business, which has been expanding in
   terms of employees and platforms. TextExpander now works on the Mac,
   iPhone, and iPad, plus Windows-based PCs and devices running Google
   Chrome. In contrast, PDFpen was limited to Apple operating systems, and
   the prospect of attempting to take it cross-platform was daunting for a
   company of Smile's size, from both technical and marketing standpoints.
   By selling PDFpen to Nitro, Smile is essentially letting PDFpen grow in
   ways it would have had trouble doing on its own.

   In the end, it sounds as though the acquisition is a win-win situation
   for everyone. Smile gets focus and money that it can use to build its
   TextExpander business, Nitro fills out its platform offerings in the
   enterprise space, and PDFpen users get continued support and
   development.

References

   Visible links
   1. https://www.gonitro.com/about/press/nitro-to-acquire-pdfpen
   2. https://tidbits.com/2017/11/03/jnuc-2017-a-glimpse-into-the-world-of-apple-enterprise/
   3. https://pdfpen.com/
   4. https://setapp.com/apps/pdfpen
   5. https://textexpander.com/

   Hidden links:
   6. https://tidbits.com/wp/../uploads/2021/07/PDFpen-13-Devices-1.jpg

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