Incredible product, journey, and financial success. Nevertheless, I bet this was not an easy decision. Losing independence even with all the other great aspects isn't ideal. Just a guess, but I bet the prospect of doing layoffs compared to selling played a role. Gitlab/Monday are public comps and currently worth less than Figma's last valuation.
Adobe to acquire Figma for $20B
511–520 of 1001 posts
Re: Adobe to acquire Figma for $20B
#512So smart for both Adobe and Figma. Figma posed a serious threat to Adobe and it makes sense for them to do it. The losers are all of us poor sods who were happy Figma customers. Just goes to show that if you want an outsized exit multiple the best way is to put a gun to a $100B company's head.
it's a bit counterintuitive that something can be good for a company (or companies) AND bad for the customers of said company... shouldn't something that is bad for a customer of a company be bad for the company too?
Only if there is active competition between similarly sized companies with the customers able to move unhindered between them.
Antitrust regulators have long since been forbidden to use their diminishing powers to make that a reality.
Re: Adobe to acquire Figma for $20B
#513Earlier quoted context omitted.
They ruined Macromedia as well. Fireworks was a fantastic hybrid vector/bitmap editing tool perfect for web work.
Always wondered why an indie app developer hasn't just decided to work their image-editor app up as "the new Fireworks." Many other image-editor apps do now take Fireworks' same non-destructive hybrid editing approach... kind of . But they're always missing one thing or another. Either: 1. they aren't multiplatform (can't get "standard" adoption like Fireworks if you're macOS-only) 2. they don't go far enough with th…
I’ve had the same question for years! There are a few tools that have tried over the years, but nothing that has stuck around.
And I get that the pixel-perfect design and slicing from the Fireworks era isn’t as useful in today’s world of responsive design and multiple screen sizes and variable screen densities, where CSS and JavaScript plays a much larger role, but I still wish we had a successor.
Because as you said, although most apps now do the hybrid vector/faster thing, nothing really matches what we had with Fireworks.
RIP Macromedia.
Re: Adobe to acquire Figma for $20B
#514I have paid for Adobe CC for years now, since they started subscriptions. As much as I hate shelling out $29.99 a month for something I use maybe 5 times a month, it always just worked for me. I've started looking at alternatives, but it's hard to spend the time learning the new product vs just spending the $30 a month. I think they've tried to raise mine several times. If I can ever not renew at $29.99, I will probably prioritize finding the time to try other stuff.
Re: Adobe to acquire Figma for $20B
#515Adobe engages in all kinds of bad faith shenanigans and dark patterns, feeling free to abuse their position. They need competition and this should be blocked by the FTC.
Re: Adobe to acquire Figma for $20B
#516This is probably the only tech acquisition that's ever made me sad. I just hate Adobe so much. The nightmare of their installer, the weird store with horrible designs popping up when you activate normal ui stuff, the difficulty in canceling a subscription, and the stasis in their product and ui. Oh and the sloppiness of Lightroom on mac with it's weird ui and that it didn't even import and manage photos well. I've be…
They ruined Macromedia as well. Fireworks was a fantastic hybrid vector/bitmap editing tool perfect for web work.
I still use my copy of Fireworks for everything graphics related that I need. Yes, it doesn't do everything as well compared to modern suites but the UI was just so easy for a developer to use. Even Homesite is still better than most editors I've ever used.
Re: Adobe to acquire Figma for $20B
#517This is probably the only tech acquisition that's ever made me sad. I just hate Adobe so much. The nightmare of their installer, the weird store with horrible designs popping up when you activate normal ui stuff, the difficulty in canceling a subscription, and the stasis in their product and ui. Oh and the sloppiness of Lightroom on mac with it's weird ui and that it didn't even import and manage photos well. I've be…
Our university subscribes to Adobe Products Suit- when all of their functionality can be replicated with FOSS. They sent out a survey about this before they started the subscription and I answered negatively to that, to no avail. So that's where our tuition/grant/loan/savings money are going.
Re: Adobe to acquire Figma for $20B
#518If true, congratulations for Figma founders, and a bad day for designers that were looking for a way to escape from Adobe. I don’t think that in the long term this will give Figma as an ecosystem any benefit — unless Adobe will keep it separate from the main Creative Cloud. This reminds me of the Trello acquisition. As a loyal Figma user I’m pretty sceptical of the future. Hope to be wrong. UPDATE: Looks like it is i…
UPDATE n. 2: Dylan Field (CEO of Figma) has addressed these kind of concerns on their public disclore of the fact: https://www.figma.com/blog/a-new-collaboration-with-adobe/ Citing him: > Adobe is deeply committed to keeping Figma operating autonomously and I will continue to serve as CEO, reporting to David Wadhwani. As others have said, there’s really a missing OSS version out there that can compete feature-by-feat…
> Like many of you, I grew up using Adobe software and it was a critical part of my personal creative journey.
Yes, it was the part of your journey that made you realize it was a company that made bad design software, and you devoted your life to making an alternative to it. For me, it was the part of my journey I was happy to leave behind to use your alternative.
I think it's okay if he wants to make $20B, but don't spin it! A blog post like this makes me lose trust, it doesn't reassure me.
Re: Adobe to acquire Figma for $20B
#519This is probably the only tech acquisition that's ever made me sad. I just hate Adobe so much. The nightmare of their installer, the weird store with horrible designs popping up when you activate normal ui stuff, the difficulty in canceling a subscription, and the stasis in their product and ui. Oh and the sloppiness of Lightroom on mac with it's weird ui and that it didn't even import and manage photos well. I've be…
I can't think of any other company to which my relationship as a customer has swung so completely as Adobe. In the 2000s, their tools were unsurpassed, and I was happy to pay the premium prices they asked (though I'd skip versions to save money). When Creative Suite was discontinued, that was a pretty abrupt turn, as I had no interest in a subscription for software I only used for personal projects. And yet, I stayed…
I can't agree more. I still use an ancient version of photoshop/illustrator sometimes and lemme tell you, the difference in responsiveness is STARK.
The problem is largely the entire concept of SaaS, but some stronger anti-trust anti-monopoly laws couldn't hurt either.
Re: Adobe to acquire Figma for $20B
#520Earlier quoted context omitted.
They ruined Macromedia as well. Fireworks was a fantastic hybrid vector/bitmap editing tool perfect for web work.
Always wondered why an indie app developer hasn't just decided to work their image-editor app up as "the new Fireworks." Many other image-editor apps do now take Fireworks' same non-destructive hybrid editing approach... kind of . But they're always missing one thing or another. Either: 1. they aren't multiplatform (can't get "standard" adoption like Fireworks if you're macOS-only) 2. they don't go far enough with th…
Very interesting. I also regret FW fondly. Your post scratches an itch in me and I may be tempted to work on that.
Sorry for my laziness to look it up but could you explain "Fireworks just stored projects as an extension chunk of a PNG file" ?