I know Autodesk owns Maya, 3DS and even Softimage's/Avid's XSI. Having said that I don't doubt that is why Adobe partnered with Cinema 4D. I am not a fan of Cinema 4D myself and would have prefered Maya, 3DS Max or even XSI over Cinema 4D for integration with After Effects but I know Autodesk would not want to partner with Adobe because their Smoke software is competiton for Adobe's AE and Premiere Combo. I think After Effects is a awesome and the fact that it has great integration with Cinema 4D is some what cool to say the least but I would like to think Adobe could have bought Poser or even Carrara from DAZ. Carrara has many great rendering features as well as hair, cloth, fluid dynamics and much more. AE should keep the Cinema 4D render engine but I think Adobe should invest in their own 3D Software for integration with After Effects as well.
Does anyone else want to see After Effects integrate with other 3D software? Cinema 4D is a nice start but it is not my first choice.