Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger • Hacker News Board

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#241

Post by mattmaroon » Mon, Dec 18, 2023, 2:32 PM UTC

iamleppert wrote: post #125

eigenvalue wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope, from Adobe’s 8K filed today with the SEC: “On December 17, 2023, the Company and Figma mutually agreed to terminate the Merger Agreement and entered into a mutual termination agreement effective as of such date (the “Termination Agreement”). The mutual termination of the Merger Agreement was approved by the Company’s and Figma’s respective Boards of Directors. In accordance with the terms of the Termination Agr…

If I was the board I’d be calling for the CEO’s head after loosing $1 billion for absolutely nothing.

It’s a common term in these sorts of acquisition attempts now. AT&T paid T-mobile $3 billion.

A failed acquisition attempt can be very damaging to the company being acquired. You can lose employees who don’t want to work at the new entity that never happened. It can change your product roadmap (are you really going to invest in directions the acquirer won’t want after completion?) and make your executive team start job hunting. Etc.

So it’s not unreasonable or uncommon for the acquirer to agree to such a provision. And the board was presumably highly involved in a large offer like that.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#242

Post by ThomPete » Mon, Dec 18, 2023, 2:33 PM UTC

airstrike wrote: post #162

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 T…

You are right its not like Facbook/Giphy, it's worse and we aren't talking about a single deal being pulled but multiple.

It's not clearly anti-competitive in fact if anything in the B2B space M&A done by bigger companies is where products go to die and opens up for a whole new set of competitors.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#243

Post by coldpie » Mon, Dec 18, 2023, 2:34 PM UTC

plagiarist wrote: post #236

madeofpalk wrote: post #6

Excellent news. I think there should be more products, more companies, and more competition. Adobe just buying up it's competition will only ever directly hurt consumers. See also, "Adobe says the FTC is looking into its subscription cancellation practices." https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/15/24003532/adobe-says-the-...

Glad the FTC is going after them. All predatory subscription practices need to be abolished by law.

If you like what the FTC has been doing lately, be sure to vote in 11 months...

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#244

Post by andruby » Mon, Dec 18, 2023, 2:34 PM UTC

londons_explore wrote: post #84

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.

The problem is nearly all company mergers, both big and small, are detrimental to competition... Even my local corner store merging with a corner store in the next town over is bad for suppliers (combined negotiations when buying stock), and bad for consumers (prices set the same between the two towns). I wonder what a world where company mergers were banned would look like?

coops usually seem like a net-win for everyone. If you ban mergers, that probably also impacts co-operations.

Joint-ventures might also be a postive. I can think of ARM, and the alignment in the automotive industry to standardise parts and platforms to lower total costs.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#245

Post by karaterobot » Mon, Dec 18, 2023, 2:35 PM UTC

On the one hand, as a designer who uses Figma every day, this is great news. On the other hand, the fact that Dylan Field was willing to do it in the first place felt like a bit of a heel turn. Yeah, it's a lot of money, I know. Maybe I'm alone in this, but I've already shifted my expectations for the long term direction of the product from "they can do no wrong" to "when is the other shoe going to drop?"

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#246

Post by ThomPete » Mon, Dec 18, 2023, 2:35 PM UTC

barnabee wrote: post #187

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…

There is no way a company Adobe's size should ever be allowed to grow by acquisition. At a certain point that route needs to be cut off forever.

You don't measure this on the size of the company but on market share. By that definition of course it should be allowed. There are many powerful competitors in this space Canva being just one of them.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#247

Post by willsmith72 » Mon, Dec 18, 2023, 2:35 PM UTC

JadoJodo wrote: post #218

While I do see this as great news (for all the reasons others have outlined), I wonder how this will impact VC in the future; If the current goal is for companies to get VC money, burn that cash for years and years and years, and then have a huge IPO or acquisition (that makes it all worth it), it would seem regulatory issues would start to scare away investment.

If they just wanted to cash out, they could still IPO or be acquired by almost literally any other company in the country. Adobe might be the only one who cause regulatory issues.

I'd rather have "regulatory issues" in a case like this even if it does slow down VC money

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#248

Post by jan_Inkepa » Mon, Dec 18, 2023, 2:36 PM UTC

SnowingXIV wrote: post #225

madeofpalk wrote: post #6

Excellent news. I think there should be more products, more companies, and more competition. Adobe just buying up it's competition will only ever directly hurt consumers. See also, "Adobe says the FTC is looking into its subscription cancellation practices." https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/15/24003532/adobe-says-the-...

Got bit by this. It felt absolutely horrible to not have any recourse. We had a yearly adobe sign contract, it was based on a particular usage estimate and quite high. Called in weeks before the renewal and they said we missed the window to cancel. There was no option out of it. No escalation. Had to stomach a massive bill for of a product we weren't going to use.

Also that their cancellation window has limits on both sides - I told them more than six months I advance to cancel my renewal and the refused and toll me to call up again in a particular 30 day period close to the expiry date...

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#249

Post by nbzso » Mon, Dec 18, 2023, 2:36 PM UTC

pier25 wrote: post #231

nbzso wrote: post #95

I am opening a bottle of champagne as we speak. It is time to remove electron based app and invest in something that will have a proper memory management. Not only 2gb. My phone has more than this. You have cornered the market. Now deliver.

It's amazing though. The performance of Figma is better than all native vector apps out there.

Yes and no. Everything is fine until you hit the 2gb limit. The average professional laptop has a 16gb ram. Figma is not only the vector app. If someone wants serious vector work, Illustrator and Affinity Designer provide a solution.

Figma is more than this, and the complexity of the workflows requires offline support and more memory available to the app.:)

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#250

Post by coldpie » Mon, Dec 18, 2023, 2:37 PM UTC

benterix wrote: post #143

dkyc wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except outlawing acquisitions by larger tech companies will absolutely reduce funding and incentives to start companies, and result in less products, less companies, and less competition.

Yeah, I get it, some founders start their startup motivated by a potential MA. And this is great for them. However, as a customer, I absolutely hate this. Instead of finding a way to actually make the product/service self-sustainable, they just increase the number of (usually) free users. But once they sell, normally the new owner either shuts the service down or turns it into crap.

Yeah. Keybase was the one that really showed this model to me, and soured me on the whole startup scene. What a crap way that is to run a business.