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Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

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Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#871

Post by Drew_ »

sackfield wrote: post #734
sowbug wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The employees are sold shares in the business that they expect to accrue a certain amount of value and with scale get very serious multiples in a liquidity event. With that promise broken the value proposition they originally signed up for no longer holds, some perhaps wasted the best years of their lives here when other options were on the table. If all you want to do is sell goods and services for more than they co…

> The employees are sold shares in the business that they expect to accrue a certain amount of value and with scale get very serious multiples in a liquidity event.

Sounds a lot like a pyramid scheme

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#872

Post by frankchn »

eddiewithzato wrote: post #475
Ekaros wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope they have big bank... Then again it would also be funny if bank crashed because someone was forced to transfer 1 billion.

banks move so much more daily

In October, FedWire moved $4.275 trillion USD per day on average.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#873

Post by paulddraper »

vlovich123 wrote: post #775

I think this is great. Figma gets a free undiluted infusion of 1B cash. I’m surprised break-up fees aren’t negotiated as an investment instead of a pure cash transfer. Sure it may have impacted company focus, it didn’t impact their revenue that much (1.5x growth vs 2x growth in previous years although that could have also been caused by an adverse economic climate with sales slowing across many companies and industri…

> I’m surprised break-up fees aren’t negotiated as an investment

That would be very awkward (and even dangerous) to have a competitor as an investor.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#874

Post by paulddraper »

sowbug wrote: post #196
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?

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

Nothing.

Unless you are VC-funded. Because VCs expect+need an exit for their LPs.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#875

Post by cco »

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's the intended outcome of the incentive structure of startup compensation.

Sometimes more than half of your expected compensation at a startup is in equity upside, either from an IPO or acquisition.

If that is to no longer be the expectation, then hiring at startups will be _much_ more challenging because startups cannot generally afford the salaries or benefits that larger companies can offer.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#876

Post by scubadude »

poisonborz wrote: post #586
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…

What does Gen AI and Adobe Firefly has to do with Figma? Not even the target group is similar - Figma didn't even try to touch raster/illustration. Building or acquiring a product is not a one-shot try at a popularity contest.

>What does Gen AI and Adobe Firefly has to do with Figma?

Something something blockchain

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#877

Post by low_tech_punk »

Pure speculation: Microsoft is bidding against Adobe

1. Figma could benefit from the AI infrastructure from Microsoft

2. Figma has outgrown the design tool genre, and is becoming productivity/collaboration platform and low-code no-code app builder. Adobe's roadmap seems misaligned

3. Regulation: Figma is big enough and similar enough to Adobe XD and Illustrator

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#878

Post by DoesntMatter22 »

gibbitz wrote: post #865
DoesntMatter22 wrote: post #817

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is a very silly way of viewing things. AI has already dramatically change logo creation and all sorts of image generation. The impact on design is already being felt and is going to rapidly increase. The cost savings are immense.

Sadly this is how we look at art thanks to AI. "It's just like a real person thought about it and made it intentionally -- but it's nearly free!". No one paying cares if it's just copied from other works and nearly randomly put together at the expense of those who can barely make a living doing it. Why don't we focus more on automating C-suite jobs? That's where a lot of corporate costs come from. Automating a logo d…

I am incredibly happy about this. Otherwise it's like lamenting the invention of the car because it would eliminate all the jobs making buggies and whips.

> No one paying cares if it's just copied from other works

There are probably zero artists alive who didn't learn by copying other works or learning to make art in that style.

It's no different with an AI. An AI is something that learns from others and creates it's own art. There isn't anything illegal about it any more so than you learning to draw and making characters that are similar to Mickey Mouse. You can trademark a specific thing but not a style.

So at the end of the day, how is it any different than a person doing it other than the fact now a person won't be getting paid?

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#879

Post by goalonetwo »

echelon wrote: post #592
bryancoxwell wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention the $1 billion termination fee Adobe now owes them.

Figma's employees are probably devastated and demotivated. Their exit dollar signs just went poof. And they've probably been working on Adobe's roadmap / integration for the past 15 months. I'm not so sure Figma is in a better spot, even with this new cash in hand.

There is a "jump the gun" law that makes it illegal to start integrating before the acquisition fully closes.

Re: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

#880

Post by [deleted] »

low_tech_punk wrote: post #877

Pure speculation: Microsoft is bidding against Adobe 1. Figma could benefit from the AI infrastructure from Microsoft 2. Figma has outgrown the design tool genre, and is becoming productivity/collaboration platform and low-code no-code app builder. Adobe's roadmap seems misaligned 3. Regulation: Figma is big enough and similar enough to Adobe XD and Illustrator

[deleted]
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