DxO Labs files for bankruptcy, but will launch Nik Collection update in June

By Hillary K. Grigonis Updated April 30, 2018

The company behind the DxO One is restructuring after filing for bankruptcy. After a translated bulletin from a French newspaper sparked discussion and rumors in the photography community, DxO Labs has confirmed that the company has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company insists that the bankruptcy and restructuring will not affect DxO users — and shared that the promised Nik Software Collection update is coming in June.

The company says they filed for bankruptcy on March 7. “We are very confident that this procedure, which should not last for more than a few more weeks, will not affect our customers in any way,” the company wrote in a statement.

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Despite the company’s troubles, the Nik Collection, software the company acquired from Google after the tech giant decided not to update the photo plugins any longer, will see an update in June. The software is currently available, but the update will be the first from DxO and will give the outdated software compatibility with the latest computers. DxO Labs also says the update will include bug fixes.

The same month, DxO Labs will also launch an update to the DxO PhotoLab editing software. The update includes support for several recently released cameras and also improves tools for local corrections, the company says. The update is free for current DxO PhotoLab users.

DxO Labs is no longer the same company as DxO Mark — DxO Mark became an independent company in the fall of 2017. DxO Mark is the company responsible for testing and ranking cameras. DxO Labs is the company behind the DxO One smartphone connected camera as well as the several different software programs.

The DxO One is the company’s only camera on the market currently and while the camera has seen several firmware updates to add new features, the camera will turn three this summer. DxO Lab’s camera launched as a camera controlled with an iPhone, but last fall, the company announced an early access program for a version of the camera with a USB-C connection for Android.

Along with the company’s RAW photo editor and the Nik Collection, DxO Labs also offers the DxO Filmpack, a Mac and PC program for adding film-like effects, and DxO Viewpoint, a Mac and PC program designed specifically for correcting perspective distortion.

The company claims more than 400 million devices use technology created by DxO, with 80 million images edited by the company’s software every year.

DxO Labs has headquarters in Paris, but also has offices in San Francisco, Tokyo, and Seoul, according to the company’s website. The company has 113 employees.

Update: Added official DxO statement and details on the Nik Collection.

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Hillary K. Grigonis

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Hillary never planned on becoming a photographer—and then she was handed a camera at her first writing job and she's been…

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