On Adobe acquiring Figma • Hacker News Board

Re: On Adobe acquiring Figma

#61

Post by capableweb » Fri, Sep 23, 2022, 9:38 AM UTC

Arn_Thor wrote: post #28

saos wrote: post #10

I simply believe Apple/Microsoft were circling Figma for an acquisition. That would be serious competition for Adobe and I imagine they got scared and threw the kitchen sink at Figma. If you're Apple or Microsoft PM. Please make internal noise to purchase a Figma competitor like Sketch and give Adobe/Figma a run for it money. Adobe clearly doesn't like competition.

Maybe it’s lack of imagination but I can’t see how Figma fits into Apple’s software portfolio. Sure, it’s in the realm of “creative stuff” but so is a lot of software Apple isn’t involved with

Similarly to how Final Cut is a video editing tool and Garageband is a music production tool. Why can't Apple also do a digital design tool?

Re: On Adobe acquiring Figma

#62

Post by capableweb » Fri, Sep 23, 2022, 9:38 AM UTC

chubs wrote: post #43

bmitc wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is Sketch still macOS only? That would seem like a major barrier.

I read recently that they have a read-only web version now

So not at all a competitor to Figma then.

Re: On Adobe acquiring Figma

#63

Post by danieljacksonno » Fri, Sep 23, 2022, 9:50 AM UTC

jakewins wrote: post #47

nkmnz wrote: post #45

"Adobe XD supports multi-player mode for three years now" – this is maybe true for some small batch of alpha version users. The designer at my last startup insisted on using XD and it was a huge pain because you couldn't work in parallel – the first person opening a file was locking it down for others to change.

This seems strange - they are very strongly featuring "live co-editing" as the supported feature set: https://www.adobe.com/products/xd/features/coediting.html If they didn't have support for that this would be a pretty egregious lie in the "here's our list of supported features" pitch to buyers?

And no one would be surprised, coming from Adobe - destroyer of souls.

Re: On Adobe acquiring Figma

#64

Post by ZephyrBlu » Fri, Sep 23, 2022, 10:26 AM UTC

radley wrote: post #7

I think some separation time from his project will help him understand that the market did not agree with him.

Agree. The author comes off as quite salty.

Re: On Adobe acquiring Figma

#65

Post by xorcist » Fri, Sep 23, 2022, 10:28 AM UTC

rk06 wrote: post #57

xorcist wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Full Time Executive"? Or Economist. Both are probably correct.

What? FTE stands for Full Time Employee

Oh, that makes sense. I've only heard it as Engineer which I found funny in this context.

Re: On Adobe acquiring Figma

#66

Post by mmikeff » Fri, Sep 23, 2022, 10:38 AM UTC

capableweb wrote: post #62

chubs wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read recently that they have a read-only web version now

So not at all a competitor to Figma then.

Figma are a competitor to Sketch though, in that many designers use Macs and for a while Sketch was the UI app of choice, but seems that Figma ate their lunch.

Re: On Adobe acquiring Figma

#67

Post by nisegami » Fri, Sep 23, 2022, 11:20 AM UTC

rippercushions wrote: post #19

SpaghettiX wrote: post #9

Regarding the justifications for Figma's price: > most startups cut their valuation by a lot in 2022 Most startups are not used by every single other startup, whereas I would be very surprised if any startup doesn't use Figma for UI design. I've never used Canva and never heard a company using it. The only time I heard of Canva is to create a nice looking CV. Comparing outliers to the average/most isn't very helpful.…

Canva is huge among casual users, eg. school-age children.

That market, while large, is difficult to monetize effectively.

Re: On Adobe acquiring Figma

#68

Post by ingenieros » Fri, Sep 23, 2022, 11:31 AM UTC

capableweb wrote: post #61

Arn_Thor wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it’s lack of imagination but I can’t see how Figma fits into Apple’s software portfolio. Sure, it’s in the realm of “creative stuff” but so is a lot of software Apple isn’t involved with

Similarly to how Final Cut is a video editing tool and Garageband is a music production tool. Why can't Apple also do a digital design tool?

Figma runs on the cloud and doesn't move hardware sales. FCP and Logic were 2 smart strategic acquisitions which helped Apple retain “PRO" users at a time where Windows had become good enough for this market segment. PRO users continued to purchase Apple's overpriced hardware when they were clearly falling behind PC's in terms of sheer performance and value because they were stuck in these ecosystems. Figma on the other hand can run even on a Chromebook so no need for users to upgrade their workstations every couple of years.

Re: On Adobe acquiring Figma

#69

Post by kenneth » Fri, Sep 23, 2022, 11:35 AM UTC

bushbaba wrote: post #26

saos wrote: post #10

I simply believe Apple/Microsoft were circling Figma for an acquisition. That would be serious competition for Adobe and I imagine they got scared and threw the kitchen sink at Figma. If you're Apple or Microsoft PM. Please make internal noise to purchase a Figma competitor like Sketch and give Adobe/Figma a run for it money. Adobe clearly doesn't like competition.

*Some* VCs will invest and play off this, knowing they can run up the price by starting a bid war. How it plays out. VC: Hey Oracle, did you hear salesforce wants to buy XYZ Startup for 1M, you want to counter? Oracle: Screw Benioff. I'm in for 2MM. VC: Hey Salesforce, thanks for the first call. Oracle wants to buy XYZ startup for 4M, you want to counter. Salesforce: Those devils, I'll do 5M. .... VC continues the ga…

I wish I had this much clout as a VC but I'm sad to report that it doesn't quite work out like this at all.

Re: On Adobe acquiring Figma

#70

Post by sgerenser » Fri, Sep 23, 2022, 11:36 AM UTC

After his mentioning of having a substantial portion of his net worth in Adobe stock, all I could think of is “oof, this is why everyone says to diversify.” Since he left Adobe in August 2021, Total stock index is down 17.7%, while ADBE is down 54.6%.