Ahh, Adobe.. they have earnings for billions and billions and they can not improve their software suites on performance..
Why improve your software when Apple can just release better hardware? \s
Adobe to acquire Figma for $20B
351–360 of 1001 posts
Re: Adobe to acquire Figma for $20B
#352Good acquisition for Adobe, terrible for the end users.
Re: Adobe to acquire Figma for $20B
#353Earlier quoted context omitted.
I actually think we need new antitrust laws that are a bit more proactive when it comes to super-massive companies like Adobe. Such companies have learned to be much more cunning when it comes to get around existing laws, and plus they have much more money than ever.
What do you think happens to VC investments when it’s harder for companies to be acquired? If you were a founder and wanted to sell your company, would you want the government telling you that you can’t sell it for the best price?
It’s a problem that the MO of venture capitalism is just pump and dump. The only thing VC investments optimize for are exit strategies and not creating actual value. So I wouldn’t see it as a bad thing that such investments are diminished.
Re: Adobe to acquire Figma for $20B
#354It’s a shame that the competition authorities don’t seem to have any interest in these type of acquisitions which destroys competition and harms consumers. Same thing happened with Architecture software eg when Autocad bought Revit - end result is extortionately priced software that many architects cannot afford because they are paid so poorly. Same will happen for graphic designers.
Anti-trust laws were written to address certain perceptions of how businesses operated back in the late 1800s. They were not particularly grounded in reality, and as such they are hard to actually implement as written in most situations.
> Anti-trust laws were written to address certain perceptions of how businesses operated back in the late 1800s
Source? First I’ve heard of Teddy Roosevelt’s trust busting being a grandiose PR campaign.
Re: Adobe to acquire Figma for $20B
#355Earlier quoted context omitted.
I still run a 22 year old copy Fireworks 4 because of Adobe's shenanigans. Just this morning I had to crop and resize a 1 MB image for display on a website and was able to do that in Fireworks in about 2 minutes resulting in 15k PNG and was on to my next task.
Well, you can do that with almost any very lightweight app, including apps costing like $10 and having hardware acceleration and everything, like Acorn and Pixelmator (examples on the Mac side) and also "be on to your next task". You can even fully automate it (well, at least the resize, you'll still need to pick where to crop) with both.
Or you could use the myriad of free and/or open source software including but not limited to GIMP, ImageMagick, and photopea.com.
Re: Adobe to acquire Figma for $20B
#356My heart plummeted when I read this headline. I've done UI design work in some capacity for 18 years, and have always dreamed of design software with the thoughtful UI and features of Figma. When I realized Figma was that software, it was like experiencing a miracle. Software like this doesn't exist . It was the first design software I paid for (yes, in 18 years). And now it's going to die. I almost feel like crying.
See, if this was local software that you could buy once and keep forever, an event like this would not have felt so full of foreboding. On cloud-based web apps, there is no opt-out short of ceasing use of the program entirely. Don't want their new features? Too bad, we're going to roll them out anyway, and there is no turning back after that. I'm still puttering along just fine on a copy of Office 2010, so my opinion…
If this was local software, you'd lose out on most of the collaborative benefits that Figma provides. That collaboration, especially with guest accounts is one of the reasons for the explosive growth and popularity. If this was a buy it once tool that required IT support for collaboration it wouldn't have nearly this growth trajectory or industry adoption.
Re: Adobe to acquire Figma for $20B
#357Earlier quoted context omitted.
I actually think we need new antitrust laws that are a bit more proactive when it comes to super-massive companies like Adobe. Such companies have learned to be much more cunning when it comes to get around existing laws, and plus they have much more money than ever.
>we need new antitrust laws that are a bit more proactive Bingo! Adobe has a de facto monopoly on vector and bitmap editing software tools, and it would make total sense for this acquisition to be stopped by the government on that basis. "The government" in this case would be the DoJ's antitrust division headed by Jonathan Kanter [1]. Looks like the process is to send a letter requesting a "Business Review" [2]. It's…
>a de facto monopoly
This isn't a terribly meaningful distinction. There are a dozen+ editing tools out there, most of them are pretty good and free. If Photoshop/Illustrator have 90% of the market because they are superior products, I'm not sure how much the government could/should do.
Apple controls something like 90% of all mobile phone profits across the entire industry. I'm not sure how breaking them would actually provide any consumer benefit.
Re: Adobe to acquire Figma for $20B
#358Hopefully Figma won't go under the CC and then there won't be a free version anymore.
Re: Adobe to acquire Figma for $20B
#359Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, i don't get this. Seems like textbook anti-competitive behavior to me. Doesn't Adobe already have their own version of Figma (XD)?
They do, but it’s not nearly as popular (or as valuable) as Figma. In the last couple of years Figma has essentially overtaken Adobe and Sketch in terms of designer mindshare and usage. I don’t know a single designer (I know hundreds), that doesn’t use Figma. Of course, I’m focused 100% on software, so I’m strictly talking about product, UI/UX design. Not print or graphic design. The way I see it, Adobe had to buy Fi…
> had to
Or didn't have to, instead improving what they already have.
I wonder if their aim is to own the designer's pipeline, from raw concepts to sharing finished work, nudging price hikes over time? All within Adobe walls and everyone agreeing to Adobe terms. I'm sure it's all fine and not creepy at all.
A designer recently sent me XD links to review, and for the most part it was a smooth experience to preview those assets and designs. She seemed to like XD.
Other times I get Figma links, and it's gonna be weird if they're both Adobe.
For me I can find one criticism of Figma. It's loose. Gets messy when there's lots of pieces spread out. Sometimes I want an anchoring page, latched, not zoom slippery... just constrained for my viewing control. Figma doesn't want you doing such things, it wants you hovering above a carpark looking down at the free and occupied spaces. That said, I haven't spent a huge amount of time in Figma, I log out quickly.
Re: Adobe to acquire Figma for $20B
#360My heart plummeted when I read this headline. I've done UI design work in some capacity for 18 years, and have always dreamed of design software with the thoughtful UI and features of Figma. When I realized Figma was that software, it was like experiencing a miracle. Software like this doesn't exist . It was the first design software I paid for (yes, in 18 years). And now it's going to die. I almost feel like crying.
What is the great feature of Figma? I tried to use it for illustration and it did not feel great at all compared to software like Affinity Designer. How were you using it that it feels like such a great loss to you?
Things like this make us SUPER valuable and fast: https://www.uiprep.com/