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Uncle Sam to block Adobe absorption of Figma over monopoly fears

theregister.com

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Re: Uncle Sam to block Adobe absorption of Figma over monopoly fears

#31

Post by DrewADesign »

kitsunesoba wrote: post #27
DrewADesign wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of context? Sure. But Adobe isn't going to just buy it, operate it, and collect its revenue. Adobe rightfully sees itself standing on the edge of a cliff. Adobe XD, despite having some great features, was handily clobbered in the market first by Sketch, and then by the vastly lighter-weight Figma. Beyond that, Figma has a great, intuitive, smooth interface for making vector graphics. It's not nearly as powerful a…

I would say that for many users, Photoshop suffers from feature bloat even more than Illustrator does. In my personal usage, nothing that’s been added since CS1/CS2 has much meaningful impact. Heck rewinding to 7.x or even 6.x would pose only minor inconveniences.

Sure, but in terms of broad software design industrial adoption, which is the only relevant metric when looking at Figma, those users wouldn't factor in. Anyone tinkering with old standalone versions of Adobe programs would not likely become paying Adobe Ecosystem customers regardless of how great the new Photoshop features were.

Most companies just pop users into their corporate CC site license and give them a brand new fast laptop to run it on and be done with it. It's basically SAAS at this point.

Re: Uncle Sam to block Adobe absorption of Figma over monopoly fears

#34

Post by duped »

barelysapient wrote: post #2

I'm a longtime Figma user and selfishly I hope they don't get sold to Adobe. That said...The sale was rumored to be about $20b. Does anyone really think that Figma has any chance of producing a return to shareholders even close to that sale price even if they charge customers aggressively?

> Does anyone really think that Figma has any chance of producing a return to shareholders even close to that sale price even if they charge customers aggressively?

They could pivot to selling drugs.

Point is, who cares? Shareholders don't have an inalienable right to maximum profits.

Re: Uncle Sam to block Adobe absorption of Figma over monopoly fears

#36

Post by baron816 »

Blocking acquisitions is such a double edged sword. Yes you protect competition, which is good. The downside is that you remove an exit ramp for startups, which limits the incentives for startup formation in the first place.

I have no idea how to balance this btw.

Re: Uncle Sam to block Adobe absorption of Figma over monopoly fears

#37

Post by yowzadave »

curiousllama wrote: post #9
BoiledCabbage wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US govts primary concern is not figma shareholders. It's US citizens as it should be. The harm to citizens outweighs the benefit to shareholders by too much in this case to allow it.

What’s the implied harm to citizens?

Adobe could, with a monopoly position, jack up the price of Figma (or kill it off entirely) so as to not hurt the market position of their cash cow.

Re: Uncle Sam to block Adobe absorption of Figma over monopoly fears

#38

Post by BoiledCabbage »

bradleybuda wrote: post #26
curiousllama wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s the implied harm to citizens?

One harm to citizens is that future entrepreneurs will be less motivated to create new products in a regulatory environment that makes it difficult or impossible for them to profit from selling their businesses. Therefore there will be fewer disruptive / innovative products. If you think this is theoretical, see the startup scene in Europe and Canada.

Of course they can still sell their product - to anyone except Adobe.

And the differences between Europe/Canada vs US startups aren't because startups created there aren't allowed to be sold. They are.

The govt's goal is not to support rent-seeking or support monopolies. It's been a huge distortion in the market recently that people have been founding companies with the purpose of selling to their large competitor who wants to maintain monopoly pricing.

If (for example) Figma's existence and growth forces Adobe to compete at normal pricing and have to cut their monopolistic pricing by half that is a net win for society. Market competition is good. If the end result is Figma sells to Adobe and Adobe maintains their monopolistic pricing society loses. The govts main goal is to ensure maximal societal benefit by fostering innovation that improves productivity and market competition.

They have no issue with Figma selling, just not in a way that drastically reduces market competition and harms consumers.

Innovation is only good (and should be rewarded) if it improves long term productivity. The most consistent way to do this is through market competition. Entrepreneurs should not be rewarded for preventing competition or helping reduce/stagnate productivity.

Re: Uncle Sam to block Adobe absorption of Figma over monopoly fears

#39

Post by 7speter »

DrewADesign wrote: post #31
kitsunesoba wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say that for many users, Photoshop suffers from feature bloat even more than Illustrator does. In my personal usage, nothing that’s been added since CS1/CS2 has much meaningful impact. Heck rewinding to 7.x or even 6.x would pose only minor inconveniences.

Sure, but in terms of broad software design industrial adoption, which is the only relevant metric when looking at Figma, those users wouldn't factor in. Anyone tinkering with old standalone versions of Adobe programs would not likely become paying Adobe Ecosystem customers regardless of how great the new Photoshop features were. Most companies just pop users into their corporate CC site license and give them a brand…

Except now its a malware minefield to try and acquire old adobe software

Re: Uncle Sam to block Adobe absorption of Figma over monopoly fears

#40

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

7speter wrote: post #39
DrewADesign wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but in terms of broad software design industrial adoption, which is the only relevant metric when looking at Figma, those users wouldn't factor in. Anyone tinkering with old standalone versions of Adobe programs would not likely become paying Adobe Ecosystem customers regardless of how great the new Photoshop features were. Most companies just pop users into their corporate CC site license and give them a brand…

Except now its a malware minefield to try and acquire old adobe software

But used packqged software on eBay.
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