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Adobe to acquire Figma for $20B

bloomberg.com

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Re: Adobe to acquire Figma for $20B

#311

Post by mynameisvlad »

detritus wrote: post #275
garyclarke27 wrote: post #63

It’s a shame that the competition authorities don’t seem to have any interest in these type of acquisitions which destroys competition and harms consumers. Same thing happened with Architecture software eg when Autocad bought Revit - end result is extortionately priced software that many architects cannot afford because they are paid so poorly. Same will happen for graphic designers.

> Same will happen for graphic designers. I'm not so sure about that, I know quite a few graphic designers who've either reverted to the pirating ways of their youthful years, many years ago - or have moved over to Affinity's offerings. The latter's still a bit rough around the edge - I can't work with Designer (I've been using Illustrator for too many decades to), but I've stopped paying for old rope and nixed my on…

As an amateur who didn’t have extensive use of Illustrator/Photoshop/InDesign, Designer/Photos/Publisher have been godsends. Relatively cheap, quality usable software.

Could not praise Serif enough for what they’ve done. I gladly paid the license on Mac and windows.

Re: Adobe to acquire Figma for $20B

#312

Post by dasil003 »

scarface74 wrote: post #142
eurasiantiger wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adobe’s direct competitor is Adobe XD, which launched with practically no features and was slowly developed only to dwindle to death as a rarely used cloud service, while everyone does the important work in Figma. The parent comment is spot-on. Antitrust legislation needs to be invoked to prevent this acquisition from happening.

It amazes me that people posting on a YC controlled board whose entire purpose for existing is to fund startups long enough to get an exit - statistically most likely through an acquisition by a bigger company - wants to stop acquisitions. The funding environment for startups would be a lot worse if investors thought that the only way they could recoup their investments is through exits. Look how few of YC companies…

I’m not sure why you think that 100% market freedom ought to be this audience’s primary index of importance. Many of us own or work for companies that will likely be negatively impacted by this. Antitrust has been systematically marginalized over the last 40 years, and despite prevailing narratives, this is not necessarily a net good for entrepreneurs.

Re: Adobe to acquire Figma for $20B

#313

Post by mynameisvlad »

myth_drannon wrote: post #78
garyclarke27 wrote: post #63

It’s a shame that the competition authorities don’t seem to have any interest in these type of acquisitions which destroys competition and harms consumers. Same thing happened with Architecture software eg when Autocad bought Revit - end result is extortionately priced software that many architects cannot afford because they are paid so poorly. Same will happen for graphic designers.

The company is Autodesk, the product is Autocad.

Is this level of pedantry needed? Even without the clarification, everyone knew what the parent comment meant.

Re: Adobe to acquire Figma for $20B

#314

Post by aliqot »

swyx wrote: post #218
tomaskafka wrote: post #134

> By bringing powerful capabilities from Adobe’s imaging, photography, illustration, video, 3D and font technologies into the Figma platform, we can benefit all customers involved in the product design process, from designers to product managers to developers. Figma’s community will ultimately have a continuous user experience across ideation, screen layout, interaction design and content editing, allowing product de…

for what its worth @zoink says they'll still be autonomous https://twitter.com/zoink/status/1570385560312909826 and he doesnt seem like the kinda guy to lie about it (even if this might change 1-3 years down the road)

Every founder says that, then suddenly you're saying Aaron Swartz wasn't a cofounder and that you're not to be considered the "bastion of free speech".

Re: Adobe to acquire Figma for $20B

#315

Post by rchaud »

pembrook wrote: post #75
nayroclade wrote: post #54

Many years ago, when Adobe bought Macromedia, they acquired a tool called Fireworks[1]. This was a combined bitmap and vector editor that was incredibly well-optimised for user-interface and web design, at a time when most designers were paying exorbitant license fees to do such work painfully and slowly in Photoshop and Illustrator. Fireworks was cheap, powerful, and hugely ahead of its time. Many of the features an…

They literally did the same thing with dreamweaver as well. And now dreamweaver is a fast growing business in the form of Webflow. It’s the same story over and over again. Adobe acquires and then stifles innovation. 10 years later we realize what we were missing out on when a challenger eventually gets big enough—-until Adobe kills that company too. I’d bet a nice chunk of money that Webflow is next.

I don't think so. Webflow is all marketing and PR IMO.

The issue with Webflow is that GUI-based web design that exports static HTML files doesn't fit with how most large websites are coded and deployed. It would be one thing if Webflow CMS and Ecommerce was gaining market share vs Squarespace and Wix, but I don't know if that's really happening.

When I go on Twitter, I mostly see PR-type posts about Webflow. Lots of "Webflow experts" but few real companies that are willing to build large sites with it.

Re: Adobe to acquire Figma for $20B

#316

Post by pier25 »

RunSet wrote: post #287
garyclarke27 wrote: post #63

It’s a shame that the competition authorities don’t seem to have any interest in these type of acquisitions which destroys competition and harms consumers. Same thing happened with Architecture software eg when Autocad bought Revit - end result is extortionately priced software that many architects cannot afford because they are paid so poorly. Same will happen for graphic designers.

> Same thing happened with Architecture software eg when Autocad bought Revit - end result is extortionately priced software that many architects cannot afford I only hope Macromedia's story doesn't repeat itself: Adobe buying the superior offering just to take it off the market.

You mean Freehand, right?

Re: Adobe to acquire Figma for $20B

#317

Post by itronitron »

happytoexplain wrote: post #156

My heart plummeted when I read this headline. I've done UI design work in some capacity for 18 years, and have always dreamed of design software with the thoughtful UI and features of Figma. When I realized Figma was that software, it was like experiencing a miracle. Software like this doesn't exist . It was the first design software I paid for (yes, in 18 years). And now it's going to die. I almost feel like crying.

I never understood the appeal of Figma, or even it's use case. Can someone explain it to me?

Re: Adobe to acquire Figma for $20B

#318

Post by afavour »

apozem wrote: post #272
happytoexplain wrote: post #156

My heart plummeted when I read this headline. I've done UI design work in some capacity for 18 years, and have always dreamed of design software with the thoughtful UI and features of Figma. When I realized Figma was that software, it was like experiencing a miracle. Software like this doesn't exist . It was the first design software I paid for (yes, in 18 years). And now it's going to die. I almost feel like crying.

I don't think Figma is going to die. It'll be bundled as part of the Creative Suite. It'll add buttons to quickly export your designs to PhotoShop or Illustrator or whatever. It'll probably get slower and clunkier. Not death, just... Adobe.

So a slow death, then.

I'm old enough to remember when Adobe acquired Macromedia. They slapped some new icons on Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash etc. then completely neglected them until people abandoned them. I pray Figma fares better.

Re: Adobe to acquire Figma for $20B

#319

Post by enumjorge »

swyx wrote: post #218
tomaskafka wrote: post #134

> By bringing powerful capabilities from Adobe’s imaging, photography, illustration, video, 3D and font technologies into the Figma platform, we can benefit all customers involved in the product design process, from designers to product managers to developers. Figma’s community will ultimately have a continuous user experience across ideation, screen layout, interaction design and content editing, allowing product de…

for what its worth @zoink says they'll still be autonomous https://twitter.com/zoink/status/1570385560312909826 and he doesnt seem like the kinda guy to lie about it (even if this might change 1-3 years down the road)

Everyone always says this. They should ask the Instagram founders [1]

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-04-07/zuckerber...

Re: Adobe to acquire Figma for $20B

#320

Post by lvzw »

pastor_bob wrote: post #250
garyclarke27 wrote: post #63

It’s a shame that the competition authorities don’t seem to have any interest in these type of acquisitions which destroys competition and harms consumers. Same thing happened with Architecture software eg when Autocad bought Revit - end result is extortionately priced software that many architects cannot afford because they are paid so poorly. Same will happen for graphic designers.

Yeah, i don't get this. Seems like textbook anti-competitive behavior to me. Doesn't Adobe already have their own version of Figma (XD)?

Announcing an intent to acquire a company is not against any competition law. The merger has not been finalized or even officially announced by the parties it seems. The FTC or DOJ will review this merger and if they deem it anticompetitive, they will challenge it.
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