HP to buy Silverwire
Hewlett-Packard hopes the Swiss company will bolster its efforts in retail photo and printing services.
Candace Lombardi
In a software-driven world, it's easy to forget about the nuts and bolts. Whether it's cars, robots, personal gadgetry or industrial machines, Candace Lombardi examines the moving parts that keep our world rotating. A journalist who divides her time between the United States and the United Kingdom, Lombardi has written about technology for the sites of The New York Times, CNET, USA Today, MSN, ZDNet, Silicon.com, and GameSpot. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET.
Hewlett-Packard has signed an agreement to buy Silverwire Holding, a software company that specializes in digital imaging systems. The company, headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, is expected to improve HP's position in retail photo and printing services, HP said in a statement on Tuesday.
Silverwire offers software for commercial photo kiosks, mini-labs, mobile imaging, personal photo management, and automated Internet ordering and printing systems. The company's lab software is compatible with Agfa, Gretag, Fuji, Noritsu and Kodak mini-labs, among others. In May, HP announced that it would be focusing on the consumer digital imaging market, releasing more than 100 new products by the end of the year. Last March, HP purchased Snapfish.com the digital online photo service, which it now includes with its digital camera software.