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Microsoft Buying Adobe?

uk.reuters.com

201–210 of 226 posts

Re: Microsoft Buying Adobe?

#201
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Rare team was spun out of Microsoft. They were the video game company that Microsoft bought from Nintendo. They were responsible for Golden Eye, Conquer, and Perfect Dark. I'm not sure if this would be considered a successful spin off though as Microsoft bought them when they were, IMHO, at their peak.

Are you sure? I can't find any confirmation, for example, they are listed as MS subsidiary on wikipedia.

> Are you sure? I can't find any confirmation,

Confirmation of what? you don't specify:)

Re: Microsoft Buying Adobe?

#202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not disagreeing, but Innovators Dilemma theory says that companies that are about to be disrupted are enjoying the greatest profits and margins ever. The problem is that the reason the profits are so high is that they've shed their less profitable divisions and products that might grow into the next big innovation. Let's say something disrupts MSFTs Office and shrinks its revenue - what do they have that could replac…

what do they have that could replace that? Sharepoint, SQLServer, Windows 7, Windows Server, Windows Virtual Server, CRM, Exchange Server, XBox, Xbox live, Bing, Zune, Microsoft Automotive platform, Win 7 phone. Microsoft has one of the most diverse revenue streams of any software company. They're going to be around for a while. Google should actually be more afraid of disruptive technologies. Their revenue is primar…

I agree with all those points, and I think MSFT will be healthy for a long time to come. I was just saying that record-breaking profits can either be awesome or a warning sign. I would guess that MSFT is in a better position than Adobe, but I don't know much about Adobe's financials to make a point based on them.

Re: Microsoft Buying Adobe?

#203
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct, but a large chunk of corporations have in house creative departments and many(if not most) use macs. Killing the Mac version of CS would force them to switch back to PC.

Or continue to use the last available version for Mac until a viable replacement is available for their preferred platform.

Or run one of several emulation options.

Re: Microsoft Buying Adobe?

#204
post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But continued Linux support is clearly a possible cancellation.

I don't think so. Both Adobe and Microsoft benefit from the existence of (and their coexistence with) Linux.

I would really need to see some examples of that. Adobe doesn't deal well with Linux (or anything non-Windows) and Microsoft would make more money with Linux around.

Re: Microsoft Buying Adobe?

#205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what do they have that could replace that? Sharepoint, SQLServer, Windows 7, Windows Server, Windows Virtual Server, CRM, Exchange Server, XBox, Xbox live, Bing, Zune, Microsoft Automotive platform, Win 7 phone. Microsoft has one of the most diverse revenue streams of any software company. They're going to be around for a while. Google should actually be more afraid of disruptive technologies. Their revenue is primar…

"Sharepoint, SQLServer, Windows 7, Windows Server, Windows Virtual Server, CRM, Exchange Server, XBox, Xbox live, Bing, Zune, Microsoft Automotive platform, Win 7 phone." Has it actually been determined that Microsoft makes any profit at all from any of those products? Entertainment division (where XBox and Live and Zune lives) is about 12% of their revenue and is still not profitable, while search and online (which…

Sharepoint is a pretty good seller for them. Exchange has as much of a lock on corporations as Windows.

Re: Microsoft Buying Adobe?

#206
post #180

This has one major implication that makes me want to root for the deal to close: Photoshop & Flash would be covered by an MSDN subscription. So, instead of dishing out $1000 for CS6, we need only enroll in BizSpark (or whatever Microsoft's next version of its ISV thing is called), and pay $400 for all our OS's, all our dev tools, and all our graphics stuff in one package. Now all they need to do is buy Codesmith, Red…

That and MSDNAA.

And Dreamspark!

Re: Microsoft Buying Adobe?

#207
post #39

Regarding: "Adobe's shares rise as much as 17 percent" Just a small detail, but the above bullet exaggerates the indicative reaction of the market. It was up 17 percent for an instant because someone fat fingered and bought it for $30.00 exactly at 3:08pm (Added: 12 minutes after the announcement at 2:56pm), maybe a little excited to buy in. Really it is up 10-11%, which is a strong and positive reaction, but there i…

Gotta love stock markets. A rumor arises of two CEO's secretly meeting, and stocks skyrocket instantly. I'd assume that nobody actually knows what they were discussing, if they even met. Wouldn't be much of a secret meeting otherwise.

Time to short sell then?

Re: Microsoft Buying Adobe?

#208
post #67
post #34

I suppose this is feasible if Microsoft is looking to acquire Adobe's enterprise customer base - the PDF, document management, etc part of the company. Having Air/Flex/Flash might also be nice, but doesn't seem like a good fit for Microsoft's traditional Windows-centric strategy (one they should abandon, in my view - the days of owning the market via the desktop are rapidly coming to a close). What I'd love to see is…

What is Microsoft's track record for spinning off companies? The Photoshop/CS part of Adobe is somewhat profitable, correct? Would MS let it go (even for a bucket of cash)?

I believe CitySearch was also spun off. That one isn't going so well.

I know there are a few core products that were results of acquisitions, namely PowerPoint and Visio. They've pretty much integrated deeply into Microsoft, so that's always a possibility here.

Re: Microsoft Buying Adobe?

#209
post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft isn't stupid. They won't make Flash Windows only and they won't make Flash Windows Phone 7 only.

Why wouldn't they? What would be the benefit of offering Flash for Linux, or Mac OS for that matter? Actually, why would they make a Flash plug-in for any browser other than IE? It seems to me that a reasonable thing for Microsoft to do, after acquiring Adobe, would be to discontinue Flash support for any OS other than their own, and to stop making plug-ins for other browsers, which would help IE regain some (if not…

>> What would be the benefit of offering Flash for Linux, or Mac OS for that matter?

Presumably it would be the same benefit that caused them to make Silverlight available to multiple platforms and browsers.

Re: Microsoft Buying Adobe?

#210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what do they have that could replace that? Sharepoint, SQLServer, Windows 7, Windows Server, Windows Virtual Server, CRM, Exchange Server, XBox, Xbox live, Bing, Zune, Microsoft Automotive platform, Win 7 phone. Microsoft has one of the most diverse revenue streams of any software company. They're going to be around for a while. Google should actually be more afraid of disruptive technologies. Their revenue is primar…

Microsoft is no slouch (especially compared to Google), but these charts seem to imply that Apple still has the more diverse revenue stream: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-microsoft-op... http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-in-case-you-...

Apple's also not really a software company.

Still, even if you ONLY look at Apple's software revenues, I suspect that Apple would turn out to be more diversified than Google. :)

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