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Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

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Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#721

Post by toyg »

rchaud wrote: post #371
_fat_santa wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> it means the underlying product is not good enough to stand on it's own feet. Adobe CC not strong enough? That's not it. Subscription retention practices like this are to juice quarterly numbers to delight analysts on the earnings calls. If Adobe was a private company this level of lock-in desperation wouldn't be necessary. We'd still be able to buy the software once like we used to.

That's a hopeful statement. Maybe it wouldn't be necessary, but it would be implemented anyway. These days, any company not having subscriptions is seen as leaving money on the table and they will become targets for takeovers.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#722

Post by havefunbesafe »

lewisjoe wrote: post #525

I'm wondering why is there zero competition for Figma? I understand their app is basically a browser-like engine running inside the browser - which is cutting-edge tech, tough to copy, etc. But given enough interest in this space and the valuation Figma has now - I'm wondering why isn't other big tech companies not building their own Figma alternatives.

I'd direct you to Figma's incredibly impressive patent portfolio https://patents.justia.com/assignee/figma-inc

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#723

Post by FredPret »

pier25 wrote: post #385
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.

I'll check these out. Both have one-time payments through the App Store, which is about 1000x better than an opaque, eternal, very expensive subscription with Adobe.

I'm a very non-serious amateur; all I do is edit the light curves in my photos or do some light cropping. The built-in editor in Apple Finder is amazing for that!

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#724

Post by al_borland »

codeptualize wrote: post #126

That is wild. It's a good thing as it means Adobe won't ruin Figma like they did with so many great software products before, but just imagine founders, investors and employees, thinking they had a really good exit.. That must hurt, I hope they can stay motivated. If Adobe can't buy them, what other exit options do they have? Go public?

If it's not Adobe, won't it be someone else? It seems ike it's just a matter of time. I'd think of Figma was looking to stick it out as it's own company for the long-term they wouldn't have entertained Adobe's offer in the first place. Unless of course something during the Adobe deal soured them on the idea of acquisitions all together, to the point where they are no longer looking for an exit.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#725

Post by dylan604 »

toyg wrote: post #716
dylan604 wrote: post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm fine with some other company that has a track record of doing bad things to the things they've purchased, which is no different than the company I'm against buying this company. How are you okay with MSFT? The logic is not very sound

I guess the parent's point was that it's better for Figma to be acquired by a company that clearly has a Figma-shaped hole in their lineup, rather than someone with a lot of existing overlap that will likely just strangle it quietly in the night.

with a company infamous for "Embrace, extend, and extinguish", I wouldn't trust MSFT to recognize a hole needs to be filled.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#726

Post by Vicinity9635 »

codeptualize wrote: post #126

That is wild. It's a good thing as it means Adobe won't ruin Figma like they did with so many great software products before, but just imagine founders, investors and employees, thinking they had a really good exit.. That must hurt, I hope they can stay motivated. If Adobe can't buy them, what other exit options do they have? Go public?

Is it just me or is every single merger a cause for disappointment and frustration with a government that once broke up monopolies, and every single failed merger a cause for celebration because it means slower 'enshittification' of everything?

I'm still pissed that Morgan Stanley was allowed to buy etrade for some fucking reason and immediately made my entire debit card experience worse, and made absolutely nothing better* for me, the customer.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#727

Post by tekkk »

karmasimida wrote: post #671
mrandish wrote: post #657

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wonder if Adobe is secretly happy about this. I think they probably are. I follow Adobe closely and when the acquisition was announced I was pretty skeptical it would be net good for Adobe in the long-run. The problem wasn't the idea of buying Figma, it was the very rich price being paid. Adobe has a history of not doing a lot of big acquisitions (for it's size and massive cash position). When it does acquire big…

One thing we could all agree is 20B for Figma is too expensive considering how the market has shifted. Figma is still solid company/business, but Adobe probably could acquire them much cheaper in today's market.

Google was too expensive for Yahoo multiple times. You should look this from a bigger time scale. Sure they were paying a lot of goodwill on the deal. But if, down the road, Figma now starts their trajectory to become an equal to Adobe it sure would have been nice to capture that market all to yourself. Like Nvidia or TSMC.

For the record, I am happy this fell through since it's clear Adobe needs competition to stop it abusing its market position.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#729

Post by amrocha »

endtime wrote: post #578
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #497

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 abou…

What does it matter if Figma employees have kids? Having kids is one of the most common human experiences.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#730

Post by intelVISA »

tekkk wrote: post #727
karmasimida wrote: post #671

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing we could all agree is 20B for Figma is too expensive considering how the market has shifted. Figma is still solid company/business, but Adobe probably could acquire them much cheaper in today's market.

Google was too expensive for Yahoo multiple times. You should look this from a bigger time scale. Sure they were paying a lot of goodwill on the deal. But if, down the road, Figma now starts their trajectory to become an equal to Adobe it sure would have been nice to capture that market all to yourself. Like Nvidia or TSMC. For the record, I am happy this fell through since it's clear Adobe needs competition to stop…

You're suggesting there's a lunch to be eaten? I'm getting kinda famished...
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