This is probably one of those high priced mergers that wont really help MSN compete with Apple. Doesn't Apple hate flash? And isn’t HTML5 the future? I think MSN would be better off spending money on a smaller company that can really help its mobile strategy.
Microsoft Buying Adobe?
91–100 of 226 posts
Re: Microsoft Buying Adobe?
#92Well, are Flash and AIR supported on Windows Phone 7?
Re: Microsoft Buying Adobe?
#93Jokes aside, it makes perfect sense for both of them. Adobe's CS and Microsoft Office are naturally self-complementing desktop giants. Both companies make a ton of money selling desktop software to the enterprise, yet outside of Flash/Sliverlight battle they don't cross each other paths. I, for one, welcome this development. It brings some hopes for better performing Flash, which I hate with a passion but its a fact…
Not disagreeing, but Innovators Dilemma theory says that companies that are about to be disrupted are enjoying the greatest profits and margins ever. The problem is that the reason the profits are so high is that they've shed their less profitable divisions and products that might grow into the next big innovation. Let's say something disrupts MSFTs Office and shrinks its revenue - what do they have that could replace that?
Re: Microsoft Buying Adobe?
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder if Microsoft is thinking the same thing. Either as a defensive move to make sure Photoshop will always work on Windows or as an offensive move and making Photoshop and friends windows only in an attempt to strangle the OS X platform.
Apple has been able to create pro level software for both audio and video editing industries. If Adobe/Microsoft scraped its mac line of products, I bet Apple would have a competing product out in 12 months that graphic designers would flock to.
Note, however, that those were all originally acquisitions. FCP was born at Macromedia and Apple purchased the product and hired the team. Shake came from the Nothing Real acquisition. Logic is from the Emagic acquisition.
Re: Microsoft Buying Adobe?
#95I feel like there's a joke in there somewhere... Something about how an adobe (proper noun) is naturally small and soft. Seems somehow fitting for the two companies to become one, no?
Adobe is a type of brick, so not particularly soft.
Re: Microsoft Buying Adobe?
#96Does that mean the new runtime will be called FlashLight?
Re: Microsoft Buying Adobe?
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apple has been able to create pro level software for both audio and video editing industries. If Adobe/Microsoft scraped its mac line of products, I bet Apple would have a competing product out in 12 months that graphic designers would flock to.
Note, however, that those were all originally acquisitions. FCP was born at Macromedia and Apple purchased the product and hired the team. Shake came from the Nothing Real acquisition. Logic is from the Emagic acquisition.
Not to mention all of those applications had a windows version. Yes, even Final Cut (at least the version they shopped at NAB).
I personally got royally screwed over Nothing Real purchase (we had a site license of both linux and windows version).
Chalice, Shake (and Tremor), Final Cut, Logic, India Pro... - all acquisitions followed by "Mac only from now on, sorry".
Re: Microsoft Buying Adobe?
#98Such a deal could be worth $15 billion or more based on Adobe's current market value. Adobe is worth less than half of Facebook? Rolls eyes
Facebook's worth is unknown.
Re: Microsoft Buying Adobe?
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe it's better to kill Office for Mac then?
I assume that Microsoft is making some money on Office for Mac. They aren't developing that product for charity. I don't see any reason for them to kill off development for the Mac, especially if they acquire Adobe. Microsoft could use some help in the mobile market, though, so I can believe the idea of those two companies joining forces to make some headway there.
Vendor lock-in isn't as crucial to Adobe's CS as it is to Office. Microsoft doesn't want anybody to even think that there's such a thing as an "Office alternative", whereas recent years have proven that upstart competitors to components of CS can get traction.
So, while killing CS for Mac might work (users switching platforms might outnumber users switching programs), killing Office for Mac would just force universities to switch to ODF and in the long term, it would hurt the rest of Office's markets.
Re: Microsoft Buying Adobe?
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
What is Microsoft's track record for spinning off companies? The Photoshop/CS part of Adobe is somewhat profitable, correct? Would MS let it go (even for a bucket of cash)?
Softimage was bought for a purpose and spun off later. It was bought by Microsoft to port Softimage|3D (and develop XSI) for NT platform - to show NT is as powerful for those applications as IRIX was. It was done, and it was sold later to AVID, now Softimage is part of Autodesk. On a side note, I always thought Autodesk was Adobe's natural predator, I was expecting a buy offer from them.
It took Soft years to recover from that imho.
When I wrote a an XSI plugin for a feature film production, in 2005, for XSI running on Linux, half of the API was still using COM, it the app required a special gcc version that shipped with the sdk to compile plugins with and the Python was ActiveState Python (which clashed with the Linux system's Python). In short, it was a disaster from a developers, and still a lot of trouble from a user's pov.
Now Adobe doesn't support Linux much but if what MS did to XSI is anything to go by, I wouldn't want to be a developer on one of those apps, after the acquisition.