Adobe Acquires Topaz Labs, Bringing AI Upscaling and Restoration In-House

rand thompson said:

Adobe Acquires Topaz Labs, Bringing AI Upscaling and Restoration In-House - Newsshooter

Adobe has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Topaz Labs, the company behind Topaz Video, Topaz Photo, and Gigapixel. The deal was announced June 25, 2026, and is expected to close in the second half of the year, pending regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions. Why...

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Hey Rand,
I actually bought the Topaz video plugin based on a post you made some years ago.

The software worked quite well for uprezzing RED 2K footage shot for slow motion.

I still use the software but stopped upgrading after Topaz went to a subscription only model.
I don’t know the economics behind Topaz as a company but I am noticing some of the smaller software companies getting bought out not long after switching to the subscription only model.

Motion VFX (recently acquired by Apple) was another company. I bought many of their plugins for FCP over the years but as soon as they went subscription only they were no longer a consideration for me.

I understand subscription can work for some people but I always felt it is actually somewhat hostile to not allow people to own the software they purchased.

It’s a good purchase for Adobe though I would have preferred a company like Boris FX to pick up Topaz since Boris at least gives a choise between permanent licenses and subscription.

It sounds like Topaz will continue to function as they are now but I highly doubt they will have any type of permanent license option again under Adobe. Unfortunate.

Brian Timmons
BRITIM/MEDIA

I think those companies who now offer subscriptions only miss a fair part of their potential revenue, especially if the offering contains more niche things that aren't used daily.

If there is a plugin that I use only every other year for tricky things (and these are the majority of what I find in my toolbox), I won't pay a monthly fee for it but would consider buying it, knowing that I can keep it around as long as needed, thus stretching the initial one-time cost over several years which corresponds better to the actual value I get out of them.

Even parts from suites like Boris FX or RE:Vision that I own perpetual are more and more replaced with Resolve's built-in stuff or quickly put together in Fusion now, so their greatest benefit is saving some time but it's nothing that's absolutely required because there is no alternative. If they would switch to subscription-only, I'd simply drop them.

And for many subscription-based packages it feels like they are getting lazy with real innovations because there is no incentive to implement new features unless a high profile competitor already has it.