That is why I think E-Frontier, the maker of Shade, is the best candidate for a Carrara acquisition, for the reasons I stated in my original post:

1. Shade has a large audience in Japan, but its user base outside of Japan is mostly negligible. Therefore Shade and Carrara will not compete with each other in the same geographic area.

2. E-Frontier is the former owner of Poser. Shade has the Poser Fusion plugin built-in. Therefore Poser compatibility is part of their corporate culture. The acquisition of Carrara by E-Frontier should therefore not hinder Carrara's Poser compatibility.

3. E-Frontier has been able to remain profitable with a relatively low-priced 3D app, therefore they should be able to keep Carrara's price unchanged and still manage to be profitable.

4. E-Frontier has the technical know-how to design a world-class renderer that can hold its own against the likes of Mental Ray. Incorporating such a renderer in Carrara will add a tremendous value to it and boost its sales, while Genesis brings very little value to Carrara, and I doubt Carrara's sales will improve the slightest because of Genesis compatibility.