Many of you will have heard of DxOMark, the dubious score given to cameras including many of those attached to Android smartphones. Recently it seems every new flagship release from a major OEM beats the previous best. The honor went to the Samsung Galaxy S9+ not so long ago and now resides with the Huawei P20 Pro.

The testing part of the company is only one half of the story, however. DxO Labs makes image editing software such as DxO PhotoLab and the DxO One camera add-on for iPhone and Android. Reports are suggesting that DxO Labs is in financial trouble in its native France.

Canon Rumors has been made aware of two sources that point to receivership and/or bankruptcy for the company. First of all, a customer was sent the following letter (translated from French):

"Hello sir,

In fact, the company has recently been placed under a regime of judicial administration, the time to reorganize.

Although we can not comment on this situation, we can nevertheless assure you that the company is absolutely not in liquidation and that we are confident that our customers will not be affected by this procedure."

The other source is a legal notice (also translated from French) posted by an admin in the Canon Rumors forum which talks about a judgment "declaring the opening of a bankruptcy proceeding." It's possible that some meaning was lost in translation, but even so, and even without knowing exactly how French business law works, it's safe to say the company is not in a good way right now.

This news isn't likely to affect DxOMark in any meaningful way as it's now an independent company after being spun off at the end of last year. It's unclear what will happen to DxO Labs at this point. Receivership could mean that the company will be reorganized and allowed to continue with some changes to the business. Or it may be that it will be put up for sale as a whole or broken down into various assets. A new version of Nik Collection software was being planned by DxO Labs after the suite was acquired from Google just last year, but that looks uncertain now.

Source: Canon Rumors