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Yesterday, Lensrentals announced that it had acquired “select assets” of BorrowLenses from Shutterfly, including the branding and assets. The company confirmed to PetaPixel today that it doesn’t include employees or the physical San Carlos, California location. BorrowLenses shared the announcement on its blog and the language indicated that the company was no longer going to continue its local operations in California. “While we will be closing our doors here in California, we are excited to join Lensrentals and know they’ll provide the very best equipment and customer support to ensure you continue to get the gear you need, whether you are renting or buying,” the blog post reads, an odd sentiment for reasons that will become clear imminently. That statement also wasn’t clear if it meant that BorrowLenses as a brand would cease, if the physical location was closing, or a combination of the two, so PetaPixel reached out to Lensrentals for an answer. “Lensrentals is not acquiring employees or locations as part of the acquisition,” a statement to PetaPixel from Tyler Beckman, Lensrentals CEO, reads. “We did acquire the BorrowLenses brand and select assets, and will bring the BorrowLenses assets under the Lensrentals brand, expanding our customer base while growing our inventory of pro grade photo, video, and cine gear and accessories. We’ve setup a transition page to help former BorrowLenses customers onboard to Lensrentals.”
Beckman makes it clear that the BorrowLenses brand will disappear as it is folded into the acquiring business, which is in contrast to how Lensrentals handled its LensProToGo merger. Given that Lensrentals now owns the BorrowLenses brand (even if it doesn’t intend to use it) and camera gear assets, the physical location will close and its employees’ jobs — which are not included in the acquisition — will be terminated. Until March 10, current BorrowLenses customers can extend their rentals directly through BorrowLenses, after which point they will need to go through Lensrentals. March 10, therefore, sounds like the final day of BorrowLenses’ operation. BorrowLenses intends to continue to ship rentals out for the next two days, but orders that ship starting next week will be fulfilled by Lensrentals. Any orders that have been recently placed but not yet received will either contain a new UPS return label or one will be shipped separately that will send the equipment back to Lensrentals, not BorrowLenses. “In the coming days, Lensrentals will have your past order information to enable extensions, adjustments, and new orders all in one place. Look for an email from Lensrentals with more details soon,” BorrowLenses writes. Going forward, BorrowLenses customers will need to set up an account with LensRentals, however, if the account is set up using the same email used for a BorrowLenses account, previous order history will be imported. LensRentals has set up a detailed FAQ page to address any questions BorrowLenses customers might have.
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