The end of Camel Audio?

"We would like to thank you for the support we've received over the years
in our efforts to create instruments and effects plug-ins and sound
libraries.

Camel Audio's plug-ins, Alchemy Mobile IAPs and sound libraries are no
longer available for purchase. We will continue to provide downloads of
your previous purchases and email support until *July 7, 2015*. We
recommend you download all of your purchases and back them up so that you
can continue to use them."

bitflipper
There is some third-hand, unsubstantiated anecdotal evidence that Camel Audio's owner has been shopping for a buyer for at least a year. Apparently, Apple was one of the companies that he'd approached but no deal was struck. 
 
There aren't a lot of big music-software companies I'd want to see acquire Camel. Yamaha and/or Steinberg, Avid, Native Instruments - none of these outfits would be good news. Let's hope it was Gibson!

dubdisciple
Maybe I am biased, but Gibson/Cakewalk does seem like a natural fit since it does fill the void of rene leaving by offering a world class synth that is seen that way outside of the Cakewalk loyalists. Z3ta+2, Rapture and Dim Pro are all good synths but none have the appeal to non-Cakewalk users as Alchemy. Since Alchemy 2 was already in development, it would fit in nicely as a flagship synth for  a Sonar X4 or whatever the next incarnation of software will be.  
 
One of the things that drives me nuts about software companies going out of business is it seems to awaken the amatuer mathematicians that go on rants about how piracy did the company in. I have already read several and I have yet to see one person show any evidence that pirates suddenly begin buying products they were pirating if they can no longer pirate. I'm not trying  to defend piracy in any way or form and forum hosts, please advise if this tangent is inappropriate.  What I have witnessed in the real world is that pirates who cannot find a pirated version of software A will simply move on to software B,C,D and whatever else is available. When pirates  DO buy software it is never a result of piracy policies but other circumstances ranging from change in income, change in morals or necessity such as being in a legit business that requires customer support only available to legit customers. Bottom line is that the number of units sold is exactly the same regardless of how many pirated versions are floating around.  I know some people disagree but I am still waiting on examples of any product suddenly having a spike in sales due to effectiveness of anti-piracy measures beyond the natural temporay bump a newer version of a product creates. Avid is a prime example. Despite using ilok2 Avid is still struggling with sales.
 
The harsh reality is that the music software business, like every other business, got saturated with too many people making too many variatiojs of the same thing. Most products go through a period of rapid growth and end up with massive consolidation  and weeding out. From cigars to cd/dvd media, people are often shocked at how industries that once had hundreds of competitors now only consist of a few huge mega-corporations with tons of brand names. Screaming "it's  piracy's fault" ignores centuries of capitolism history and is a reactionary attempt to paint the software industry as some kind of sacred cow exception. I guess my point is that as bad as piracy is, it is a completely  seperate issue from factors that make a company profitable.