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Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

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Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#341

Post by cartermatic »

vickychijwani wrote: post #152
lvl102 wrote: post #91

As someone who enjoyed using Figma, this is an excellent news. However, I am afraid they will sell to someone else. Namely, Microsoft.

Interesting thought - why do you say Microsoft?

It's rumored Dylan Field (CEO of Figma) approached Microsoft [1] around the same time they were talking to Adobe but Microsoft declined to make a deal at the time (seemingly due to Microsoft's then in-process $69billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard).

[1]: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/11/microsoft-looked-at-figma-bu...

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#342

Post by ceejayoz »

xyzzy4747 wrote: post #334
ceejayoz wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They'll send you to collections, which'll ruin your credit.

How does that work? I don’t think Adobe has your social security number.

You don't need someone's social security number to send them to collections.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#343

Post by JCM9 »

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.

Many states are cracking down on these practices and no longer consider “sorry you forgot to cancel” as a legal agreement binding you to a renewal. Common sense says you should have to consciously renew vs accidentally doing so via some bogus contract clause.

Of course if you’re relying on such gotchas to keep subscription numbers up you’ve already failed and are just on a slow march to irrelevance while leaving pain and destruction in your wake.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#344

Post by phlsa »

FredPret wrote: post #295

Photographers: is Adobe Photoshop still the king of photo editing? I strongly dislike Adobe’s “subscription only” business model, but it seems the market is telling them that subscriptions are a-OK: Adobe’s profits are very steady and are up 70+% in five years. [ https://valustox.com/ADBE ]

I feel like there are actually more great options out there today than back in the pre-subscription days of Adobe. It all depends on what parts of Photoshop you're actually using, but between Affinity Photo, Pixelmator, Capture One and many others, there's a good chance that you can find something for your needs.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#345

Post by Invictus0 »

samhuk wrote: post #292
kibwen wrote: post #208

Every time a merger fails, an angel gets its wings. Force megacorps to actually compete rather than just snapping up their potential competitors. Force startups to aspire to create an actual product rather than just manipulating the lizard-brain fears of irrational megacorp execs in the hopes of a payout.

> Force startups to aspire to create an actual product rather I'm getting on to 10 years in the software industry as an engineer at the moment and in my view this is one of its most disappointing and frustrating aspects. The whole software start-up scene just feels saturated with FIRE-obsessed individuals who prefer just about anything (money, vacation, travel, fame, ...) over company, product, real building, craftsm…

[flagged]

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#346

Post by capableweb »

FredPret wrote: post #295

Photographers: is Adobe Photoshop still the king of photo editing? I strongly dislike Adobe’s “subscription only” business model, but it seems the market is telling them that subscriptions are a-OK: Adobe’s profits are very steady and are up 70+% in five years. [ https://valustox.com/ADBE ]

Depends on what kind of editing is needed. Most professional photographers I encounter use Lightroom, but they don't do any heavy editing like cutting out/in actual objects, but just modify color curves and whatnot.

Besides, Photoshop really isn't a competitor in any way to Figma, they have two very different use cases. Closest competitor would be Adobe Illustrator.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#347

Post by xbar »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #314
Hasu wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But that's not a 'preneur. If you are the business and the business is you, you're ability to exit is highly limited. That's not a 'preneur. If you get hit by a bus and your customers are screwed and the business tanks. That's not a 'preneur. Sorry, but it absolutely is. Entrepreneurship is just starting a business and taking on the majority of the risks and rewards. There is nothing in the definition that says you…

[flagged]

There does exist a large subset of tech/crypto/ai entrepreneurs that operate as you describe. It is not the same as the definition.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#348

Post by dtx1 »

anthuswilliams wrote: post #329
dtx1 wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looking at your profile, it says you work for Google, so I assume this is in the context of google? You guys probably have the internal legal resources to advice you. If it was not in that context, ChatGPT at least suggest that this is first of all a federal fucking crime (Domestic Bribery Act seems to apply here) and you can contact the Department of Justice, the FBI or report it to the SEC which offers a whistleblo…

This sounds it might be like a hallucination. I've never heard of any "Domestic Bribery Act" and I'm unable to find one in cursory online searching. (In 18 USC there are prohibitions on bribing public officials, but that doesn't seem relevant here.)

Fascinating, i think you are correct. This website at least suggests that there are some other laws regarding domestic bribes: https://www.globalcompliancenews.com/anti-corruption/anti-co...

But "Domestic Bribery Act" seems to be a hallucination. I have so far only encountered fake sources or links that don't exist, this kind of hallucination is new and unexpected.

Thanks for making me aware of this, quite scary how utterly convincing chatGPT was in this instance.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#349

Post by i_am_jl »

_fat_santa wrote: post #301
jan_Inkepa wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

When your business has to depend on subscription engineering like this, it means the underlying product is not good enough to stand on it's own feet.

That's the worst part, the products are great. $20/month is reasonable for PS/LR considering that yearly releases were retailing for $500+ in the CS6 era. Cloud storage and generative AI credits are rolled into those costs. New features are showing up again. Regarding Photoshop, there are no real alternatives.

It's not that Adobe's depending on subscription engineering, it's creative pros 100% dependent on Adobe products being willing to put up with this shit because they have quality products with no alternatives.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#350

Post by klabb3 »

Erratic6576 wrote: post #14
jonplackett wrote: post #5

I don’t even use Figma, but I a glad Adobe won’t be owning them.

Yeah I miss Adobe Lightroom but you don’t get to install it, adobe takes over your computer

I tried the subscription for Lightroom CC and left my computer on at night to sync my meager 50-100GB to their cloud clusterfuck. Trial period ended after 2 weeks and the sync hadn’t finished – and no it wasn’t an issue with my bandwidth.

Yeah..

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