In this deal, one key step that Autodesk is taking against Houdini is the ICE environment. This can be thought of as Apple's Motion against Adobe's Swiss Army Knife AfterEffects. Now Apple's interactive Motion is giving a hard time for Aftereffects. This deal SHOULD not be underestimated. SideFX MUST wake up and still maintain its leadership as the most advanced 3D app.
I must point out what Houdini has to spend its most resources:
1. Character Animation tools: Now that Softimage's Face robot is under Autodesk's belt, Sidefx should address its Character Animation tools with a powerful interface and procedural tools at “neuron” level to render hi-fidelity skins efficiently.
2.Blazing Interactivity especially with Hardware shading: Yes, currently Houdini sucks in this in terms of Hardware shading and realtime interactivity compared to the benchmark apps. With today's project deadline, creative iterations needed, Houdini should seriously add boosters.
NOte:
Houdini DOES NOT need any more features, we uesrs can always develope it.
WHAT IS MOST NEEDED AT THIS TIME IS HOUDINI SHOULD STRENGTHEN ITS GUTS BY TAKING ADVANTAGE OF MODERN CPUS(MULITCORE, MULTITHREADING, PARALLEL PAROCESSING) AND GPUS BETTER THAN WHAT IT IS NOW.
Ofcourse, don't forget Character tools

Let Autodesk always have something before it to catch up.
Good luck Sidefx. We love you.
Solomon.