Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

figma.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 1001 posts

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#161

Post by ceejayoz »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #110
ceejayoz wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The entire purpose of starting a company is to get acquired. The vast majority of companies are little "lifestyle" businesses without any intention of ever getting acquired by anyone. Your local pizza shop doesn't expect to be a unicorn.

And *this* is The Key difference between an entrepreneur and a mom & pop. That said, even a mom & pop should be mindful of exit. What happens when the owner(s) wants to retire? Or has a serious health issue? Or has a family member with a health issue? Etc.? You don't have to be a unicorn to build something that someone else wants to acquire. Editorial: And this is why I dislike words like solopreneur, mompreneur, and…

Mom-and-pop businesses fit the definition of entrepreneur just fine. I'm not willing to let Silicon Valley VCs redefine the term.

> What happens when the owner(s) wants to retire?

Maybe they just close down the shop.

> Or has a serious health issue?

And purchase disability insurance.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#162

Post by airstrike »

ThomPete wrote: post #131

I see a lot of people in the thread thinking this is a good thing, it's not. First of all the reason for the UK not allowing the merger is completely absurd and based on a false premise which is most likely based on not understanding the field they are regulating. Regulation based on speculation about the future means that regulators can simply just make up reasons. Thats akin to when kings could just make up reason…

You're surely entitled to your opinion. It doesn't mean you're right.

I tend to agree the CMA is pushing some esoteric arguments in their rulings, but I don't thinks deal is at all like Facebook / Giphy.

"A healthy M&A culture" isn't undone by a single deal being pulled, especially when that deal is clearly an anti-competitive one.

Also if anything, Adobe overpaid for Figma given it was one of the last deals before Tech stocks properly melted, so even Adobe shareholders can be happy with this outcome

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#163

Post by zlwaterfield »

nolongerthere wrote: post #12
zlwaterfield wrote: post #8

This is sad for the overall M&A market. Companies are going to be scared to enter into these agreements because it’s just a waste of time and money when it inevitably ends up like this.

Which I think is overall good for the consumer, many of the companies are only merging to lessen competition, not provide any extra value to us.

There’s a bigger picture than just the consumer. If there is not a chance to exit then founders won’t be incentivized to create these companies and employees won’t be incentivized to join or stay at these companies. If M&A markets are limited then the only option is IPO which goes through major cycles and probably can’t support the number of companies needed. Plus many companies can’t get big enough to IPO.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#164

Post by preommr »

What a disaster for Adobe.

They signal they can't build something to outcompete Figma. Their stock price falls

They axe their existing competing product, and is therefore now way behind.

They face problems with the acquisition, which makes their stock price fall again because it signals that not only can they not build products they can't use their money to buy companies that do.

Then it's confirmed they can't acquire Figma.

Then they have to lose 1bn dollars.

And that money is going to a competitor that they took seriously enough to try and acquire at a sky-high price.

QQ

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#165

Post by paulpan »

hallway_monitor wrote: post #7

It looks like regulators are actually doing their job. I would love to see more of this, along with breaking up companies that have gotten too big for their britches.

At least the European regulators are. Still waiting for US agencies to do their job...case in point: Intuit.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#166

Post by fnikacevic »

andsoitis wrote: post #156

Why did Figma want to sell itself to Adobe in the first place? Even though their revenue is only about $400MM, As far as I know, they make a very healthy profit (operating margin of ~90%), and they’ve also been expanding through organic and acquisition means (e.g. they bought Diagram). Is it because they see the ability to grow the company’s products even more given the Adobe footprint?

The $20B price was a massive overpay is the most likely reason.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#167

Post by macintux »

jq-r wrote: post #122
vr46 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s total madness, isn’t it. Long time user, from 1-5, then everything fell apart with CC, subscriptions and the clusterfuck of shite installed on my Mac.

I'm in the same boat. A very long time user and I really liked everything about it. When they started pulling that subscription shit with tons of crapware I had enough. Cancelling subscription (even a short one) was also a terrible (I would even call it criminal) experience. Tried couple of alternatives, and frankly I don't like them. They are either slow, got abandoned in a year or have unintuitive workflows. I woul…

Pixelmator/Photomator is an interesting alternative with robust software for both Mac and iPad. I’m a bit too fond of Photoshop layers right now, but I’m tempted to switch.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#168

Post by fnbr »

andsoitis wrote: post #156

Why did Figma want to sell itself to Adobe in the first place? Even though their revenue is only about $400MM, As far as I know, they make a very healthy profit (operating margin of ~90%), and they’ve also been expanding through organic and acquisition means (e.g. they bought Diagram). Is it because they see the ability to grow the company’s products even more given the Adobe footprint?

Assuming your numbers are correct, they sold for 50x ARR, which is a very very good price. I bet that’s why. It’s hard to do better than that.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#169

Post by cesaref »

jq-r wrote: post #122
vr46 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s total madness, isn’t it. Long time user, from 1-5, then everything fell apart with CC, subscriptions and the clusterfuck of shite installed on my Mac.

I'm in the same boat. A very long time user and I really liked everything about it. When they started pulling that subscription shit with tons of crapware I had enough. Cancelling subscription (even a short one) was also a terrible (I would even call it criminal) experience. Tried couple of alternatives, and frankly I don't like them. They are either slow, got abandoned in a year or have unintuitive workflows. I woul…

Confronted with the same sort of problem, I ended up with Capture One and couldn't be happier. There are other options out there, which you should definitely explore.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#170

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

raiyu wrote: post #149

Anyone else think this has nothing to do with the regulatory agencies but instead the market has dramatically shifted in the past 15 months in terms of valuations and this is a nice cover to cancel the deal? Figma still gets $1B "investment" without giving up any equity or control and Adobe gets to walk away from a massive $20B fee. Adobe makes $17B a year in revenue, they would need some pretty strong growth out of…

They were being investigated in the UK, the EU and the US.

It seemed very unlikely (to me, at least) that all three would approve.

That being said, if valuations hadn't changed so much then maybe they'd have stuck it out.

Post reply on HN