It had been rumored for some time, but today two of Britain’s longest-running web companies, Photobox and Moonpig, confirmed that they are joining forces in a deal worth £120 million (5 million).

Photobox, which prints digital photos and books, announced that it was purchasing Moonpig — which sells personalized greetings cards online — in a deal funded through a mixture of cash, shares and borrowed money. the Financial Times has plenty of detail about the transaction.

Stan Laurent, the CEO of Photobox said the move was about trying to becoming the biggest player globally in what “opportunities in the personal publishing market”

The two are known to have been circling each other for a while, but Photobox CEO Stan Laurent suggested that the deal was about trying to become the biggest player globally in what he called the “personal publishing market”. However the timing, just a few days after greeting cards retailer Cardfactory bought online gift business Getting Personal, makes it look like a wave of consolidation is starting to hit the wider online printing business in the U.K.

It’s a large sector with several significant players and no runaway winners right now. Precisely what it means for local stalwarts like Moo.com, or international companies with big British presence like Dutch company Vistaprint, remains to be seen. Similarly, it’s not clear whether this will have an impact on American rivals like Snapfish, Zazzle and Shutterfly, though there’s certainly the possibility that it could help ignite similar consolidation on the other side of the Atlantic over the next year or two.

Photobox, which is backed by Highland Capital Partners (Ask Jeeves, eToys) and Index Ventures (Skype, MySQL), says it will be raising another round of funding off the back of the deal. It has previously suggested it might consider flotation.

In the long run, though, this deal may actually have more cultural impact than it does to the market. After all, the purchase is a testament to perseverance: the story of two dotcom veterans who many thought wouldn’t stay the course. Moonpig was started in 1999, as the dotcom bubble was hitting full speed. Even the name itself seemed to be meaningless, plucked from the Web 1.0 handbook (it was actually based on founder Nick Jenkins’ nickname).

Photobox came a year later, hoping to build a business that would help keep the humble physical photograph alive. Both made it through the crash and the desolate years afterwards and recovered well, building substantial and valuable businesses over time.

In fact, in a way they’re also indicative of a certain style of European startup: one that just keeps on going and going. Moonpig founder Jenkins was forced to take six rounds of investment to push the company to profitability — but at each point he put his own money in as well to prove to investors that he was serious. The business didn’t turn a profit for five years, but when it did things grew pretty quickly. And the result of Jenkins’ dedication, says the Financial Times report, is that he retains 35 percent of the company even after all this time, and gets a substantial reward of almost million for his efforts.

Photograph used under Creative Commons license courtesy of Flickr user lollyknit

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Where would we be without the world’s graduate art projects? In the case of Markus Kayser’s Solar Sinter, we might never have seen the day when a solar-powered 3D printer would turn Saharan sand into a perfectly suitable glass bowl. Well, lucky for us (we suppose) we live in a world overflowing with MA students, and awash in their often confusing, sometimes inspiring projects. Solar Sinter, now on display at the Royal College of Art, falls into the latter category, taking the Earth’s natural elements, and turning them into functioning pieces of a burgeoning technology. Solar Sinter uses the sun’s rays in place of a laser and sand in place of resin, in a process that is perhaps more visually stunning than the results. See for yourself in the video after the break.

Continue reading Solar Sinter solar-powered 3D printer turns sand into glass, renews our faith in higher education (video)

Solar Sinter solar-powered 3D printer turns sand into glass, renews our faith in higher education (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Jun 2011 00:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Introduction:

With the hectic and spirited society we deal with each day, computers and printers have practically become inevitable, in our private lives and also in our work places. Computers can skilfully turn out volumes of information, and printers skilfully turn out non-electronic copies of critical documents. The technical revolution which set a computer and printer on just about every desk is bought about by invariable modernism. Although there’s not much that couldn’t do with a bit of improvement, the inkjet printer has proven to be a reliable and stable platform for delivering printer output. The technology is straightforward and makes the focal point the inkjet cartridge containing micro-technology which correctly drops the ink on paper. Here’s some information about an ink cartridge for Canon printers, the Canon CLI-8BK.

Total Score:

3.5 of 5.0 stars

Key Features:

This high-quality cartridge from Canon contains the innovative ChromaLife 100+ system. This practice advances the long-lasting ability and the superiority of printed copy. ChromaLife 100 + make use of an fusion of Canon dye-based inks, proprietary FINE print head, and photo paper to turn out a bright, amazing product. FINE (full-photolithography inkjet nozzle engineering) print head, a mechanism that delivers outstanding definitiveness and correctness in printed images and text. The entire process is augmented for usage with Canon’s photo papers. Also, this cartridge has exclusive ink remaining notification technology.

Cost:

From Around £8.00 to £10.00

Product Details:

The Canon CLI-8BK ink cartridge has a yield of about 450 pages at 5% coverage. It generates incredible photos that could compete with ordinary photos. Provided that they are kept in an archival quality photo album, photos generated from this cartridge could be around a hundred years from now. The cartridge has a shelf life of 24 months and contains 13ml of black ink.

In Regard to Canon:

It may be interesting to know that Canon as a business, incorporates a business philosophy know as “kyosei”, which guides all of its movements. Kyosei is a set of convictions which focus on the theory of working and existing with each other for the good of everyone. Canon has adopted this philosophy and explains it like this: “All people, regardless of race, religion or culture, harmoniously living and working together into the future” Aware that unfairness and bias are in existence, Canon is dynamically using kyosei as an answer to resolve them. Canon is really a universal corporation which thinks that the centre of its trade and quest for success relies on its patrons, their neighbourhoods, other countries and our environment.

Having a forward-thinking manner of carry out their business, I’m not at all surprised that a product such as Canon’s CLI-8BK ink cartridge is better than most of the other ones.