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Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

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Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#381

Post by doctorpangloss »

preommr wrote: post #164

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…

They didn’t just pay $20b for something that’s probably worth $500m so I think they won this round.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#382

Post by martin_a »

jyunwai wrote: post #351
542458 wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Adobe is very good at building software. Is that actually true? XD attempted to directly compete with Sketch and Figma, and was not generally considered to be a success at that primarily because they couldn’t ship features fast enough to catch up.

At the same time, however, Adobe maintains products with no clear competitors due to their quality. This is especially true for After Effects (for motion graphics in videos).

> This is especially true for After Effects

Or Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Acrobat...

I know, Affinity exists but as everybody in the graphic industry has learned on Adobe software, switching over is hard.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#383

Post by peyton »

airstrike wrote: post #354
matthewowen wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True in the US, not true in the UK or EU.

Fair, I'm not as familiar with the UK/EU regulatory environment

That’s who’s blocking the sale according to Adobe’s press release: https://news.adobe.com/news/news-details/2023/Adobe-and-Figm...

Depending on specifics, the EU stopping blockbuster acquisitions in the US startup ecosystem feels ripe for abuse.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#384

Post by chongli »

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.

It’s a personality thing. The type of person who starts companies tends to start a lot of them. The idea of sticking around at a company and keeping a steady hand on the tiller (after all the big product problems have been solved) is anathema to these folks. What they need is a succession plan.

It just happened that mergers and acquisitions turned out to be the cleanest, easiest way for founders to hand over the reins. In days past, companies would go through this transition process internally, often by succession through the founder’s family. The founder may have been a very entrepreneurial type, but the child who was raised to be the successor was more of a managerial type. When it worked out, anyway. Sometimes none of the founder’s kids were suitable. Or the founder tapped the wrong kid to take over.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#385

Post by pier25 »

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 ]

For photo editing, PixelMator Pro and Affinity Photo are great.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#386

Post by peyton »

airstrike wrote: post #176
evrydayhustling wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adding a legal battle with the FTC to the cost of any acquisition can chill and kill otherwise obvious deals, and or sap value out of those that push through. FWIW, I think there are good reasons to limit tech consolidation, including this one. But anyone should realize that it will reshape the industry in unpredictable ways, including some that harm "real" consumers and builders.

But anti-trust isn't being invented now. It's always existed. Companies already factor in anti-trust risk when doing M&A—it's just hard to quantify the expected value of that risk If anything, IMHO, we've been too lenient with anti-trust in Tech in particular over the past 5-10 years. This just dials things back a little, and makes it so that "hard to quantify" risk is a little more likely than it was before, and cer…

Published guidance is the correct tool. Blocking acquisitions doesn’t really decrease uncertainty.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#387

Post by airstrike »

peyton wrote: post #383
airstrike wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair, I'm not as familiar with the UK/EU regulatory environment

That’s who’s blocking the sale according to Adobe’s press release: https://news.adobe.com/news/news-details/2023/Adobe-and-Figm... Depending on specifics, the EU stopping blockbuster acquisitions in the US startup ecosystem feels ripe for abuse.

I can assure you the EU isn't blocking this to prevent US founders from making money

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#388

Post by jansan »

pier25 wrote: post #372
spaceman_2020 wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

imo, Adobe is falling behind. Photoshop's generative AI is substantially worse than what I can get from models on Tensorart/CivitAI + an upscaler. It's way easier to produce something that can go live right now without much editing in CivitAI -> Upscale in Magnific -> Add to Canva.

I couldn't care less about AI in Photoshop but I'd love AI in Illustrator to generate vector stuff.

AI sucks pretty hard at generating Vectors. The only option for now is to generate something in an illustration style and have it vectorized.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#389

Post by leshenka »

ativzzz wrote: post #313
leshenka wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bank's smartphone app?

Not all banks have these unfortunately, even though one time virtual cards should really be the standard for all online purchases

Yeah, sadly. But really it's the best way to do virtual cards.

If a bank doesn't offer these, next best thing is to go to the bank that does.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#390

Post by yellow_postit »

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.

Wonder how this shifts funding. VCs won’t get same returns/horizons if companies can’t aim for acquisition exits.
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