Live data from Hacker News

Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

figma.com

281–290 of 1001 posts

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#281

Figma got out better than it was before. It's still a strong product. And Adobe abandoned XD basically giving up this market to Figma.

I wonder what this does to their valuation? It's not really my area so I don't know, but once a company is willing to buy you at a certain price, you're kinda "worth" that price right?

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#282
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And Fireworks

I still keep a copy of CS6 on my windows machine just for access to fireworks. I should probably learn something new at this point but there is just something about the presentation of the canvas, pixel snapping, and palettes that I can't give up.

They really hit the sweet spot with Fireworks.

I wouldn't be surprised if Adobe's decision to phase it out resulted in all these new UI design apps to appear in the market (Sketch, InVision, Figma, etc).

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#283
post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Is not paying an option? Ran into this issue with a large software provider once but they had some actual account management negligence / weren't responsive so we used that to hang our hat on not paying and eventually they let it go.

No, because contract law is built for centuries past and lets Adobe screw you for trying this. Not sure if they do, but they definitely could.

Back when communication latency was days or weeks, allowing sticky auto-renew that ignored payment failure and asked for a lot of heads up time on a cancellation made sense. It was exploitable, but it was worth it to buffer the latency. Now we don't have the latency, so it's just exploitable, the law hasn't caught up yet, and Adobe is happy to exercise this advantage against you.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#284
post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's forget Europe and let's focus on the US market alone. If we do the math, we have to ask - where would those 20 billion dollars come from that were to be paid by Adobe to Figma investors? I'm sure not from Adobe's coffers, their bean counters would place them onto subscription pricing with a time cap to recoup all that cost. For sure. I would assume that regulators aren't unaware of that in the said markets (UK/…

And? Companies aren't allowed to make money anymore?

Total investment is around 350 million dollars. Adobe is paying 20 billion dollars.

What company is making money in this?

It is the investors that poured in 300+ million were going to have a massively inflated payback day, later compensated and loaded on to the backs of unsuspecting end users.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adobes cancellation practices are literally illegal in the Netherlands by the way. The deceptive trick of "pay monthly for a full year" and then hitting you with the cancellation fee is against local law. (It's called de wet van Dam for the curious.) You have to threaten their customer support with legal complaints to make them comply with it, it's super frustrating to deal with. They do fold immediately when you do…

I recommend using virtual credit cards for subscriptions. I just cancel the card if the account cancellation process is hostile in anyway.

What's the best way to acquire those?

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#286
post #196

That is wild. It's a good thing as it means Adobe won't ruin Figma like they did with so many great software products before, but just imagine founders, investors and employees, thinking they had a really good exit.. That must hurt, I hope they can stay motivated. If Adobe can't buy them, what other exit options do they have? Go public?

What's wrong with selling goods and services for more than they cost?

There is nothing wrong with that if that is the type of company you build from the start. VC funded startups generally want to have an exit/IPO to get a return for their investors and give their founders and employees an opportunity to cash out and de-risk. Without an exit or IPO that is a lot harder, especially for employees.

It's about the expectation of everyone involved.

Eventually every company needs to turn a profit, so for the company it might not make that big of a difference or even be better (if they can turn a profit which I assume Figma can), but for the investors and individuals involved it's a very different situation as it means their capital is pretty much stuck. And I bet a $20B exit would be life changing money for a lot of people involved.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#287

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-...

> Adobe says the FTC is looking into its subscription cancellation practices Great news, where do I testify? Adobe tried to bribe me personally to not fight their subscription cancellation policies for the company I was representing. Given how obviously unimpressed I was with the whole thing and how I was clearly not the target market of a creative cloud subscription, I can only assume that this is a policy that the…

Most effective thing to do relative to your time is probably participating in relevant FTC requests for public comments: https://www.ftc.gov/policy/public-comments

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#288

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 acquir…

I don't think that's a correct analysis.

Adobe is very good at building software. It's not the problem. It's not that Adobe can't compete with Figma. It's that they don't want to.

Adobe has a great engineering team and ships wonderful products. The problem with Adobe is that the business side is anticompetitive, exploitative, and sleazy. Buying Figma, they lose a competitor. Competitors have a nasty tendency to expand to adjacent markets, and that's the sort of thing Adobe likes to nip as early as possible.

If not for their business practices, I would totally buy Adobe products, because they're great.

As is, I don't know if Adobe won't triple prices tomorrow for me to continue to be able to edit my own documents (once they know I'm locked in), or find some other way to !@#$ me up the !@#$. The slight hit to product quality going to competing products and open-source is more than made up for with the stability of having a reliable business partner, or source code I can build myself, respectively.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#289
post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is not paying an option? Ran into this issue with a large software provider once but they had some actual account management negligence / weren't responsive so we used that to hang our hat on not paying and eventually they let it go.

No, because contract law is built for centuries past and lets Adobe screw you for trying this. Not sure if they do , but they definitely could . Back when communication latency was days or weeks, allowing sticky auto-renew that ignored payment failure and asked for a lot of heads up time on a cancellation made sense. It was exploitable, but it was worth it to buffer the latency. Now we don't have the latency, so it's…

I'm curious, what exactly are the ramifications of this "contract law" in the context of Adobe subscriptions? Adobe will sue you? Are they suing large amounts of customers?

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once upon a time, digital product design happened in Photoshop and Illustrator. Then competitors like Sketch and Figma came out with a better product. This made Adobe create XD to compete, but it was unable to make a good product so instead they tried to purcahse their competition instead of making something better. 9 months after Adobe announced it was to purchase Figma (and 3 months before it hoped the deal would c…

Fireworks tried to fill the gaps between PS and Illustrator, but never got traction. > Adobe discontinued XD That was my understanding as well, hmm

RIP to Fireworks, it's the first tool I ever used for design.
Post reply on HN