Adobe abandons $20 billion acquisition of Figma
Adobe abandons $20 billion acquisition of Figma
Figma will receive a $1 billion fee.
Adobe: "We want to acquire Figma"
CMA: "Figma balls"
This doesn't even make sense and I'm still laughing my ass off. Also the title makes it seem like adobe abandoned its attempt of its own accord instead of getting shafted by regulations.
Don't mind if I do.
Adobe has ruined all they touch since way back. Most notoriously with Macromedia Flash acquisition and enshittification.
Flash was great for a lot of reasons, but had to die because of insecurities and performance issues. Apple crushed it for a good reason. It did take us a few years to catch back up.
But also, the market died. There's nothing flash does that 2018 vanilla JavaScript can't do. Yet nobody is really building tools like that anymore, and the hobby coders moved to other platforms like game makers or multimedia makers.
End of an era for sure. I agree, Adobe Flash had to go. Macromedia Flash was brilliant tho.
I miss seeing the "Macromedia Shockwave" loading screen when firing up online games on Win 98 back in the day 😢
I miss the UI of the early 2000s era. It felt so slick back then.
RIP Fireworks. I used it for shitty design rather than websites or whatever but it was so easy to use.
Fireworks is a great example of why Adobe should keep its hands off figma.
Macromedia built a product IN 1998 that had a lot of the features we take for granted in sketch, figma etc. today. Reusable symbols, a pixel accurate approach to UI design, “states” which were basically like how invision and figma handle hotspots and rudimentary prototyping…
Then adobe bought it and sat on it, never really taking the product any further. All while the industry progressed and other people developed products like sketch and figma. Then adobe tried to copy that with XD, but never developed xd either compared to figma.
Had the acquisition gone through I wouldn’t be surprised if figma then just withered on the vine just like fireworks. It’s clear the innovation is coming from outside of the house. _
I remember the guy Adobe put in charge of the Flash plugin on Linux whining in official public facing communication about how difficult it was to work with "minority browsers," which he clarified to mean everything but Internet Explorer 6 running on Windows.
Is anyone really missing flash? as much as I hate Adobe like the next guy, the internet is a better place without that proprietary crap infesting most websites for no good reason other than a cheap animation
I don't miss Flash, but it's hard to deny that back in the day, it was nice to have a tool that rendered content universally for web browsers. It was also fun to make shit in. 100% obviously we're better off without relying on some proprietary software to render interactive components etc, but it did serve a purpose and give us a blueprint for what the web should, and often times should NOT be.
But, Fireworks(also part of macromedia) was a fucking fantastic program and was lightyears ahead of its time. Adobe murdering it spawned Sketch, which spawned Figma. So the irony and dread of Adobe buying Figma was never once lost on me.
I rely on these tools every workign day of my life, and fuck adobe for fucking with my workflow
Wasn't Apple the main force behind killing Flash?
Adobe killed Flash by buying it up and making it complete shite. It was really decent before Adobe fudged it up, I.e.,slow and dangerous.
Macromedia had done a great job with Flash. That’s why it became so popular in the first place.
As a dude that uses Figma this makes my day!
Ok, I'm gonna ask.
What's Figma?
Figma balls.
Builds web page mockups, with interactivity.
Designers these days should be thinking of the full web page. Hover states, transitions, where links go, accessibility, color, how it looks on mobile, desktop, 4k, etc.
Using Photoshop to build websites is so 2010s and modern designers use something like Figma for that.
Our companies designers use it to mock up application flows and how each screen, icon, font, colors, will look. Then our engineers use it as a guide for how the program should look and feel.
Collaborative tool for drawing, sketching, charting, etc. in real time with others. Personally my team.uses it for the FigJam feature which lets us brainstorm ideas like on a whiteboard. It's much easier to explain an idea with a whiteboard than in an email that tries to explain functions or features.
Figma is the future, really. It does so many things for designers across many spectrums. It’s no wonder Adobe wanted to scoop it up and shelve it all. It’s going to eat their lunch and they know it.
In a letter dated December 14th, Adobe rejected remedies suggested by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to approve the merger following an in-depth antitrust probe. The authority wanted Adobe to make a significant divestment of assets, source code, and engineers to “restore the conditions of competition.” All parties were expected to discuss the CMA’s provisional decision to block the deal on December 21st, with a final deadline to approve or block the acquisition set for February 25th.
Based CMA
Awesome news. Bless the regulators fighting back.
As a result of the termination, Adobe will be required to pay Figma a reverse termination fee of $1 billion in cash.
This does bring a smile to my face. Maybe companies will actually stop trying to mass acquire everything when there are risks involved.
Or just write contracts that put the fall through on the smaller company that fails acquisition. (Seems more likely) Sucks, but many business acts do now
Thank God. Adobe needs to stay the hell away from Figma.
Adobe needs to stay the hell away, full stop.
$1 billion termination fee would be a termination fee of the century
pretty sure that's what adobe wanted to charge me for wanting to cancel Creative Cloud
As a side note, there is a FOSS alternative to figma called penpot! Is not as polished or feature-rich, but I though some of you might be interested 💖 https://github.com/penpot/penpot
I really hope that PenPot can catch up with Figma, it's a decent alternative. But until at the very least they can offer better tools for components like variants and custom properties, there is just no way for anyone working professionally with Figma to switch.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Following mounting pressure from regulators in the UK and EU, Adobe and Figma announced on Monday that both companies are mutually terminating their merger agreement, which would have seen Adobe acquire the Figma product design platform for $20 billion.
As a result of the termination, Adobe will be required to pay Figma a reverse termination fee of $1 billion in cash.
“Adobe and Figma strongly disagree with the recent regulatory findings, but we believe it is in our respective best interests to move forward independently,” said Adobe chair and CEO Shantanu Narayen in a statement.
“While Adobe and Figma shared a vision to jointly redefine the future of creativity and productivity, we continue to be well positioned to capitalize on our massive market opportunity and mission to change the world through personalized digital experiences.”
Developing...
The original article contains 135 words, the summary contains 135 words. Saved 0%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Good news! It was already heading in a shitty direction with the new chances that they overly hyped and then put behind their shitty Adobe subscription model. Old Figma would let you use it and master it before you bought it and it was successful.
Woohoo!
Yay!
Ligma, Adobe
good call for CMA.
I would think what's going to happen there is Adobe will acquire figma and either keep the IP so their CS product will get the monopoly.
Ooorrr~ keep the brand but also get the monopoly.
As a designer that uses figma every day, I have to say....
... I don't care one bit. I have to subscribe and use Adobe software anyway, not only because everyone else uses them, but because that's simply the best graphic software out there and I've tried it all. Not too mention that the full Adobe subscription, that you can usually get 50% off, is not that expensive anyway, compared to many saas that are buggy and just do one simple thing. So yeah, I don't hate Adobe anymore, everyone is doing what they are doing and most of the software out there is complete garbage and even more expensive.
I have to disagree with the "best software out there".
You said you are a designer, that you used It all and currently uses Figma right?
Adobe has a Figma competitor, Adobe XD, and It seems you're not using It, even though It should be better like you said.
Sorry, I thought everyone will understand that I'm taking about photoshop, illustrator, indesign, AE and not that every single Adobe product ever made is absolutely better than every single other product that has ever been made ever.... Next time, I will try to be more precise. I deeply apologise
I also have to subscribe to and use Adobe software but suggesting it's less buggy and less expensive than other apps is delusional.
The moment you try and do anything outside of basic image editing, Photoshop immediately shits the bed.
It's riddled with features that were half developed or half removed. Tried using any of the 3D stuff? It pops up a box saying "We've abandoned this and it probably won't work, but go ahead and try because we haven't properly removed it". Using artboards? Probably not, since half the app seems to break with them, including their brand new features like Live Gradients that rearrange themselves when you save.
Looking for a filter? Well there's 2 places to look since they seem to have lost interest in the filter gallery half way through, then piled mediocre AI filters on top. It'll be a slow search, since for some reason some popup windows take fully 3 seconds to open, probably due to their 4 different UI systems in various states of abandoned.
Photoshop is widely used today because it was good 15 years ago. If someone hasn't already creating a leaner, more stable, better designed, more ambitious piece of software, it's only a matter of time until they do.
Delusional? I'm sure you just mean to capture my attention, but you dont have to try like that.
I'm not here to defend Adobe or praise their products. For the last 2 years I have done my best to get rid of them and finally, about a month ago I conceded and payed for the subscription again.
Let me tell you, there is no software (none, 0), that can do half what photoshop can do and is less buggy. That doesn't say, photoshop or any other Adobe product is not buggy and doesn't have issues, it's just a fact there is no competition.
I say that completely confidently and with no delusion anywhere.
