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On Adobe acquiring Figma

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Re: On Adobe acquiring Figma

#71
post #44
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Figma doesn't sound like something that would fit Apple at all. One of their differentiators is their performant web app which is something Apple is very much against. Then collaboration where Apple is also bad at on top of iterating fast, which Apple is also bad at for software.

Wouldn’t be surprised if Apple Freeform matures into a Figma competitor https://appleinsider.com/articles/22/06/06/apple-offers-snea...

I would absolutely be surprised if they did that. Apple does not seem interested in this line of apps, and its quite a lot to go from glorified paint to a Figma competitor.

There's just not much precedent for Apple caring about building out apps for 'pro' work - Final Cut and Logic Pro as historical anomalies.

Re: On Adobe acquiring Figma

#72
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>whereas I would be very surprised if any startup doesn't use Figma for UI design. have startups stopped using Invision? >acquirers desperation (very high), I would think acquirers desperation (very high) would be another word for 'dump this stock' which to me is what the article seems really about. People dumped adobe, why because Figma not worth that unless acquirers desperation (very high). uh oh, who wants to hol…

"have startups stopped using Invision?" Speaking as a designer, Invision has never felt like a serious design tool and they've had a constant struggle to find their place in the market. Invision started life as a prototyping tool, and they dabbled with Studio sometime around 2019, but recently they've morphed into more of a collaboration/whiteboarding tool. They're probably more akin to Miro or Jamboard than Figma th…

Ok I thought that might be the case, although not sure why. As a developer I found less irritating than I am currently finding Figma, although that might just have been the project.

Re: On Adobe acquiring Figma

#74
post #41
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.

Figma doesn't sound like something that would fit Apple at all. One of their differentiators is their performant web app which is something Apple is very much against. Then collaboration where Apple is also bad at on top of iterating fast, which Apple is also bad at for software.

I don't know. I've been impressed with icloud.com in the past. They didn't need to do that, and yet they build full featured web versions of their office suite.

Re: On Adobe acquiring Figma

#75
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn’t be surprised if Apple Freeform matures into a Figma competitor https://appleinsider.com/articles/22/06/06/apple-offers-snea...

I would absolutely be surprised if they did that. Apple does not seem interested in this line of apps, and its quite a lot to go from glorified paint to a Figma competitor. There's just not much precedent for Apple caring about building out apps for 'pro' work - Final Cut and Logic Pro as historical anomalies.

It could be more like freeform is Garageband to Logic. So a Design Pro app could be something in the future... They do seem to continue investing in Final Cut and Logic.

Re: On Adobe acquiring Figma

#77
post #60
post #39

Adobe's financial performance has been pretty outstanding. In 2015, their net income was 630 million dollars with 13,893 employees. By 2019, through steady growth they have grown their income to 2,951 million dollars with 22,634 employees. In other words, while in 2015 an employee produced 45347 dollars but in 2019 the same person produced 130739 dollars. I would be slow to presume they do not know what they are doin…

As far as I understood they're making quite good on their analytics software/services. I had a discussion on this with one of my friends who is more knowledgeable on the issue about 2 years ago, and I can't remember the exact name of the service/product, but I got out of it that they're processing a huge amount of data as analytics for large companies (and their associated campaigns). I remember that I found it stran…

They acquired Marketo, yes.

Re: On Adobe acquiring Figma

#78
I don't think this author did much research prior to writing this piece.

> Who is David Wadhwani, the person Figma is going to report to? I have never heard of this name while working at Adobe. A little further research shows he joined Adobe in June 2021, just over a year ago.

A quick look at his LinkedIn profile shows that he worked at Adobe for nearly 14 years prior to coming back as an exec. A little more digging shows that he came to Adobe back in 2005 via acquisition of Macromedia.

> even with Adobe keeping Figma as independent as it can be, it will develop and grow at a much slower pace since there will be no venture capital funds pouring in

Figma was already profitable. From all the reports, it doesn't seem like they had any intention of raising another round to continue growth.

> With accelerated stock vesting triggered by the acquisition, a lot of Figma employees will jump ship to their next adventure.

There is no accelerated vesting.

It's fine to criticize this deal from a business strategy perspective, but don't make up details to hit the word count...

Re: On Adobe acquiring Figma

#79
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.

Why would Apple be interested? They really don't care about applications anymore. I'm a bit surprised they even bother with FCP and Motion at this point. I have no idea what they would do with Figma. They can't even get SwiftUI to work after several years, so offering up a design product as part of Xcode or something would definitely be lipstick on a pig.

Apparently someone from the Xcode team modded that down. There's always someone eager to take offense at facts.

Re: On Adobe acquiring Figma

#80

I don't think this author did much research prior to writing this piece. > Who is David Wadhwani, the person Figma is going to report to? I have never heard of this name while working at Adobe. A little further research shows he joined Adobe in June 2021, just over a year ago. A quick look at his LinkedIn profile shows that he worked at Adobe for nearly 14 years prior to coming back as an exec. A little more digging…

Some additional context around XD vs Figma:

"After seven years of investment, Adobe XD was bringing in just $15 million in annual recurring revenue on a standalone basis — a minuscule fraction of Figma's $400 million annual recurring revenue. (That, in turn, is a minuscule fraction of Adobe's overall annual revenue of $17 billion.)"[0]

[0] https://www.axios.com/2022/09/23/adobe-defends-figma-deal

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