In September 2012, Nik Software was acquired by Google for an undisclosed amount. As of 2010, the company had 120 employees - around 40 of whom are located in San Diego where the company is headquartered while the remaining staff (primarily engineering) are based in Germany. Nik Software was, until Google's acquisition, a privately held company owned by investors and Nikon, which in 2010 had a 35% stake in it. He led the company from a small software developer company to a software research and development company. In 1999 Michael J Slater joined Nik Software as CEO of the company.
The Nik Software team developed Nils Efex! and Nils Type Efex!, these were a combination of Photoshop actions and textures. Nik Software focused on digital photography and graphic design. In 1995 Nik Software (originally Nik Multimedia) was founded by Nils Kokemohr in Hamburg.
