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Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

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Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#571

Post by omnimus »

tsycho wrote: post #549

[Pure speculation; I don't work in the UI space at all, and at neither of these companies] I wonder if Adobe is secretly happy about this. They were acquiring Figma at the peak of the market (for growth stock/startup valuations) because of the existential risks that Figma was threatening, due to their collaborative development UX. But since then: * Startup valuations have fallen. Ignoring regulatory concerns, a new a…

Adobe Firefly is cute but it wont get you any customers from Figma because it's different product for completely different purpose.

Figma has something that Adobe lacks and wanted probably more than Figmas customers. Huge database of essentially all web/ui design done in past 3 years. If Firefly is such a hit wait once FigmaAI will start generating their stuff.

Also it doesn't seem Figma as product was slowed too much - they have recently launched dev mode. One of the biggest features in a while. That put them more ahead of the competition.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#572

Post by vr46 »

jq-r wrote: post #122
vr46 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s total madness, isn’t it. Long time user, from 1-5, then everything fell apart with CC, subscriptions and the clusterfuck of shite installed on my Mac.

I'm in the same boat. A very long time user and I really liked everything about it. When they started pulling that subscription shit with tons of crapware I had enough. Cancelling subscription (even a short one) was also a terrible (I would even call it criminal) experience. Tried couple of alternatives, and frankly I don't like them. They are either slow, got abandoned in a year or have unintuitive workflows. I woul…

I found a loophole - check my older comments - to let me get out of their system, but they may have closed it. I bought Affinity for a laugh but switched to Capture One for better skin tones, Photo Mechanic Plus for better management. Both those have gone to the terrible subscription model but I’m just going to freeze my Mac‘s OS where it is and have a reliable machine for this.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#573

Post by gigglesupstairs »

MenhirMike wrote: post #546

So, which company is Figma going to try to sell itself off to next? Atlassian maybe? I guess that Microsoft wouldn't be interested since they abandoned Expression/Blend/etc., Apple isn't in the market for web tools, and Miro is probably too small. So, Atlassian makes some sense to capture more of the developer audience.

I think on the contrary, Microsoft may look into it as another AI driven or AI enabled product that can deliver UIs on the fly, and hence can attract creative crowd towards them. TBH, possibilities are limitless.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#574

Post by dumbo-octopus »

tsycho wrote: post #549

[Pure speculation; I don't work in the UI space at all, and at neither of these companies] I wonder if Adobe is secretly happy about this. They were acquiring Figma at the peak of the market (for growth stock/startup valuations) because of the existential risks that Figma was threatening, due to their collaborative development UX. But since then: * Startup valuations have fallen. Ignoring regulatory concerns, a new a…

> Adobe has probably captured back both mental and market share from Figma

Unlikely. Based on the google trends [1], Figma sees around 10x more traffic than Firefly, but more importantly it experiences severe weekend drop-offs, meaning people are using it for work. Firefly on the other hand has a constant amount of attention, in line with people playing around with it but not committing to it for serious projects.

Anecdotally I work in UI/UX space as a contractor and I've been given every design in Figma, I hadn't even heard of Firefly until this comment.

[1] https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%203-m&ge...

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#575

Post by bluishgreen »

tsycho wrote: post #549

[Pure speculation; I don't work in the UI space at all, and at neither of these companies] I wonder if Adobe is secretly happy about this. They were acquiring Figma at the peak of the market (for growth stock/startup valuations) because of the existential risks that Figma was threatening, due to their collaborative development UX. But since then: * Startup valuations have fallen. Ignoring regulatory concerns, a new a…

" Adobe can now add collaborative features to Firefly" - Except they won't. If you have been inside old big tech companies you'd know. Hard for me to articulate though. An open acknowledgment of this phenomenon is Satya staying out of OpenAI and still sucking the milk. They can never hope to move the same. Sathya's brilliance is that he decided and quietly said to himself and his board.. "And that's ok". Being humble brought MS back into the race. Adobe should have done the same with Figma.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#576

Post by Matticus_Rex »

xvector wrote: post #502
ethbr1 wrote: post #496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This would have gone quickly, to no, if Figma and Adobe had taken the first answer they got from DoJ at face value.

[flagged]

You're getting downvotes, but IMO it's because people don't realize how far outside the norm Lina Khan's stances and approach has been.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#577

Post by ajmurmann »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #542
ajmurmann wrote: post #487

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Broadcom & VMware merger took similarly long and was approved. The duration is completely unacceptable and poison to business. I'm general against mergers and think it's better for consumers and the market if competitors fight to the (metaphorical) death instead, but if we do something, let's do it smoothly and right. That said, for mergers like that a ton of countries are involved which makes things even more co…

> it's better for consumers and the market if competitors fight to the (metaphorical) death instead I never understand why this is the only other option. If you're in a town and open a coffee shop, and someone else opens a coffee shop, if the town is big enough, you can both thrive. You don't have to try to take out the competition. But every big corporation decides it's the only option.

Because if you are the only one selling coffee, you can jack up the prices and keep the returns growing as they are required to.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#578

Post by endtime »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #497
sowbug wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's wrong with selling goods and services for more than they cost?

I think this is my favorite comment of the year. We've all become so inured to the idea, especially in startup land, that the purpose of building a business is just the exit (and hopefully we can get out soon enough with someone else "holding the bag"). As you point out, if Figma can build a growing, profitable business, there is no reason they can't IPO at some point. But still, this shows how even the purpose of an…

> that the purpose of building a business is just the exit

The majority of those affected negatively by this are not the founders, but the employees. Many of them may have turned down FAANG positions that come with predictable liquid RSUs. Some may have kids (in fact, I know someone at Figma who had a kid in the past year).

Liquidity's not necessarily about opportunistically passing on risk...sometimes it's just about making a competitive living relative to being at a public company.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#579

Post by Matticus_Rex »

callalex wrote: post #482
fairity wrote: post #392

> Fifteen months into the regulatory review process, Figma and Adobe no longer see a path toward regulatory approval How in the world did it take fifteen months for regulators to reject this? That’s an absurdly long time to be operating a business in limbo, and I have to assume it’s the regulators dragging their feet since the companies have every incentive to move quickly. I don’t have an opinion on whether or not t…

Keep in mind that you are reading a corporate press release/propaganda piece, not journalism. It is going to be inherently one sided and will not tell the whole truth. Never take these kinds of statements at face value.

No one disputes that regulators basically killed this merger.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#580

Post by tsunamifury »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #558
tsunamifury wrote: post #513

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea I mean how do people think large companies do things like payroll which is easily more than this monthly.

Payroll is done with ACH, not wire transfer. ACH is reversible so it has fewer controls. Wires are not (generally) reversable.

Technical Protocol doesn’t matter we’re talking approval and liquidity here. ACH/Wire same dif.
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