Angelo Sotira (L) co-founder of DeviantArt.com
Israeli web and cloud services provider Wix has acquired digital art repository, DeviantArt, for $36 million dollars in cash.
With this acquisition, more than 325 million digital creations by DeviantArt members will come under the Wix umbrella, although DeviantArt will continue to be operating independently.
Over the course of 17 years, DeviantArt attracted 40 million registered members, a portion of which upgraded to paid memberships.
DeviantArt co-founder, Angelo Sotira, announced the news:
“This is where art starts and where art grows. With the addition of the resources, skill, innovation, and energy of Wix, our community can and will explode even faster than it has in the past, and we will become more inspired, magnetic, and audacious than ever before.”
Sotira also clarified that all art created by the DeviantArt members remains under the creators’ ownership:
“Please know that the DeviantArt Submission Policy, Terms of Service and Copyright Policy all remain the same. Deviants continue to own their own works. In the future, there’s a possibility Wix might provide opportunities for you to license your work — only if you want to — to more people around the world.”
Born in Greece in 1981, Angelo Sotira co-founded DeviantArt in August 2000 along with Matthew Stephens and Scott Jarkoff, with a budget of $15,000 dollars.
Wix assumes about $3 million in liabilities as well; Sotira is now a member of the Wix management team, and all the other DeviantArt employees remain with the company.
Visit DeviantArt.com to read the announcement by its founder, Angelo Sotira.
I have been a member of diviantart since 2005/2006. It’s interesting to see that Wix bought them. I’m curious as to how they plan to use the leads of deviantart to fuel or compliment wix