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Microsoft Buying Adobe?

uk.reuters.com

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Re: Microsoft Buying Adobe?

#151

Post by andrewf »

mootothemax wrote: post #65
mattparcher wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the original NYT report [1]: Randal C. Picker, a professor of law of the University of Chicago law school, said in a telephone interview that the technology space is drastically different than it was when Microsoft was originally charged with antitrust violations and an acquisition or partnership of this nature would likely not be halted. Mr. Picker said that the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commissio…

Thanks, very interesting. I'm genuinely surprised though, as we're talking about some huge spaces being gobbled up: Photoshop, ColdFusion, Director, Flash, FrameMaker, Illustrator etc. And those are just some of their bigger names! :)

I would have thought that the antitrust concerns would go the other way this time - the combined company using the dominance of Photoshop to prop up Windows (by cancelling the Mac version), or the dominance of Flash to prop up Windows Mobile (by killing Flash for Android).

Re: Microsoft Buying Adobe?

#152

Post by andrewf »

emilsedgh wrote: post #71
_b8r0 wrote: post #66

This would be quite interesting. If Microsoft bought Adobe, what would happen to PDF on Mac? What would happen to Silverlight? Would the next Office use PDF as a standard format? Then there's the creative suite. What would happen to photoshop? Dreamweaver (or MS Frontpage 2012 as it'd be renamed)? InDesign (or Microsoft Publisher 2012 as it'd be called)? Also think about the other side of it. The Acrobat team would b…

PDF has an open spec and third party developers could make as many PDF readers as they want. Like on Linux, where there are plenty of PDF readers, mostly based on Poppler. I guess there must be non-Adobe PDF readers for mac.

"Preview" is part of Mac OS X and works well enough that third party viewers aren't popular.

Re: Microsoft Buying Adobe?

#153

Post by misterbwong »

dbrannan wrote: post #2

I've often wondered why Apple doesn't buy Adobe, kill all development for PCs, and leave Microsoft high and dry in the creative market. Just saying...

Apple wouldn't do this for the same reason that MS doesn't do this with Office: $$$$$$. There's too much money in the PC market to ignore it.

Re: Microsoft Buying Adobe?

#154

Post by narkee »

ThomPete wrote: post #101
narkee wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really interesting, when you think about it as a system that changes in response to observation. Can you imagine if physical systems worked like that? That observed physical phenomena would change in response to what the experimenter/observer thinks will happen?

It kind of do according to QM.

Not really. QM measurements follow probability distributions, but are not dependent on what the experimenter thinks about the system.

Consider a 2-state single particle system, the outcome probabilities of one state vs. the other are fixed by the Hamiltonian and the time evolution of the system, and not by the experimenter's opinion of the system.

Re: Microsoft Buying Adobe?

#155

Post by narkee »

pmichaud wrote: post #133
narkee wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really interesting, when you think about it as a system that changes in response to observation. Can you imagine if physical systems worked like that? That observed physical phenomena would change in response to what the experimenter/observer thinks will happen?

Yeah, that's sort of what actually does happen.

I should have been more precise when I said observation. In QM, clearly scientific "observation" acts on the system, causing the system to "collapse" into a definite state, but what I meant by observation in my previous comment was that speculative observation, commentary and opinion can affect the state of the system.

That is clearly not true for physical systems.

Re: Microsoft Buying Adobe?

#156

Post by irrelative »

revorad wrote: post #118
joezydeco wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apples and Oranges. Adobe is publicly traded. When (if) Facebook IPOs, they will not be worth $33 billion. http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2585-facebook-is-not-worth-33...

I know, I'm equally amused by the valuations. It's a bit like old school advertising (billboards, TV) versus Google pay-per-click ads. As soon as you can measure something accurately, it's value decreases.

Indeed. Old school advertising was sort of like a mystery box. What do you think's inside? It could be ANYTHING!

Sort of like the maxim "Half my advertising works, I just don't know which half." Well, Google let you measure which half, and improve on the other.

Re: Microsoft Buying Adobe?

#157

Post by duck »

andybak wrote: post #76
brudgers wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect that were Adobe to leave the Windows market, the vacated "niche" would be quickly filled.

It might be harder than you think to replace highly refined creative tools such as Illustrator or Photoshop. Although they have become rather bloated and the last few versions have failed to innovate in significant ways, there is a lot of graphics professionals who would be very reluctant to waste all that hard-won muscle-memory. Plus there's a lot of work-flow knowledge in them there apps.

Exactly, I have tried repeatedly to switch to GIMP as Photoshop is the only reason I have a Windows box at home - but I just can't do it.

Re: Microsoft Buying Adobe?

#160

Post by lukestevens »

old-gregg wrote: post #74

Jokes 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…

But how does this counter Apple in mobile? That's what I don't get -- buy Adobe for Flash because, err, that'll hurt Apple somehow?

If they just want Flash, I bet they're bummed they didn't buy Macromedia a few years ago.

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