Adobe buying Macromedia

[francis]

Blimey, strewth etc (http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/invrelations/adobeandmacromedia.html)!!

[Phil]

*jaw drops*

[francis]

Okay, things I can see happening:

FreeHand getting assimilated into Illustrator, GoLive getting assimilated into Dreamweaver, Adobe's SVG work getting shunted further into the background now they have Flash. I really hope they don't kill Fireworks - it's far better than ImageReady.

Surprised at MM being valued at $3.4 billion. Even more surprised by this announcement - it is astounding.

[Phil]

educational price for dreamweaver / flash goes up

:(

this is huge news. i can't believe rumours didn't get out or that at the moment (9.30) there's nothing about it on zdnet / macuser / the register / etc

[francis]

Yes, but Adobe have better educational licence agreements - there is a legitimate upgrade path from Adobe Educational software to non-educational (I emailled them to check before spending £££). MM doesn't, so hopefully their more restrictive practice will die a death. Either that or Adobe will adopt MM's practice and I'll be very upset.

[James]

Perhaps it's a strategic alliance to conquer Microsoft? Both companies are huge - Flash and Acrobat Reader are on billions of PCs worldwide.

[francis]

A combined Adobe and MM still couldn't touch MS. And they tend to work in different areas - Adobe + MM are way more into digital media and publishing, something that MS haven't really made any serious inroads into (MS have, er, Paint and Photo Editor, have no DTP app (AFAIK) and have never developed FrontPage into a good bit of software). Flash and Acrobat are both free products so, although they're on billions of PCs, the companies don't make any money directly out of them. Interestingly, MS have never bothered creating their own PDF viewer - Apple have PDF creation and viewing built into OSX via the fast, lightweight (unlike the monsterously bloaded Acrobat viewer) Preview app.

[francis]

Blog entry from a MM employee (http://www.markme.com/mesh/archives/007504.cfm)

[Phil]

i'm not keen on huge software monopolies, but I think:

- pdf as a common format will benefit from being having flash capability.
- dreamweaver will benefit from working tightly with photoshop
- flash will benefit from working tightly with illustrator
- imageready *was* going to get re-incoporated into photoshop - maybe fireworks will live on as the web graphics app.

i reckon golive and freehand will just fade away. Microsoft do make Publisher for basic DTP but it's really no competition

[David]

:o Blimey!

I have to agree with Phil's analysis of the various applications. Most serious web designers I know use the Dreamweaver/Photoshop combination and the Illustartor/Flash combination also seems logical. I also believe that Freehand and GoLive will fade away. And, that's the end for LiveMotion :( ...shame because I quite liked it. Maybe there will be a crossgrade to Flash :)

I for one think this is a positive move. The combined company won't challenge MS but they will dominate a corner of the market where MS barely has a fingerhold. It's also good for users. We can look forward to web design suites incorporating DW PS Illustrator and Flash - that's a killer combination.

[francis]

PDFs with Flash in? *runs away screaming*

I wonder what will come of Fireworks? It's a far better app than Image Ready (although, I've only used Image Ready no more than 10 times but found it clunky and very unfriendly compared with FW). The common concensus on the web so far seems to be pretty much: goodbye GoLive, FreeHand, Adobe's SVG work. As for MM's Fontographer (no update in 10 years but still buyable), who knows? Were Adobe still developing LiveMotion? I bet MM's Flash Paper will vanish as well - shame as that could have been interesting. But, yes, a studio package of DW, PS+FW, Ill, Acr would be an amazing package.

[francis]

Originally posted by David@Apr 18 2005, 4:47 pm
The combined company won't challenge MS but they will dominate a corner of the market where MS barely has a fingerhold.
Although... (http://www.startribune.com/stories/535/5355593.html) I still think that there'll be a huge gap between MS and the new Adobe. Agh, that article needs registration. So...

SAN JOSE, CALIF. -- By acquiring rival software maker Macromedia Inc. in a deal originally valued at $3.4 billion, Adobe Systems Inc. is positioning itself to do battle with Microsoft Corp. over the tools to create, distribute and manage content online.

The deal, announced Monday, would put Adobe's ubiquitous Acrobat document-sharing program under the same roof as Macromedia's Flash software for creating and viewing interactive content on websites independent of operating systems or devices.

Adobe, which also makes the Photoshop image-editing line and other programs for creative professionals and consumers, also gets the website-building application Dreamweaver as well as software for enabling real-time collaboration among business users.

Shares of Macromedia rose $3.27, or nearly 9.8 percent, to $36.72. Adobe's shares fell $5.89, or 9.7 percent, to $54.77.

Under the deal, which both companies' boards approved, Macromedia stockholders get 0.69 shares of Adobe common stock for every share of Macromedia common stock. Based on Monday's closing price, the deal would be worth $3.07 billion.

The $3.4 billion value was based on Adobe's Friday closing price, which represented a 25 percent premium. Macromedia stockholders are to own about 18 percent of the combined company when the deal closes.

As digital content increasingly finds its way onto cell phones, handheld computers and even televisions, the makers of the tools for working with information are racing to make deals so their technology is not left out as new standards emerge.

Macromedia has had success in persuading makers of cell phones and other non-PC devices to embed its Flash technology in their devices. Besides boosting revenue from software sales and licensing, the companies will profit as more developers buy the specialized tools required to create content.

But Microsoft also has ambitions beyond the PC market it currently dominates with its Windows operating system, Web browser and other content-playing technology. It offers a simplified version of Windows for cell phones and handhelds -- as well as "light" versions of its Web browser and media player.

Microsoft also is expected to include technology in its next-generation Windows that could threaten Adobe's dominance with its Acrobat software and the portable document format it invented. Microsoft has been launching programs to help improve collaboration within the workplace.

With Macromedia's Breeze real-time collaboration software, Adobe will be able to offer more of an all-encompassing suite of offerings than it had before the merger.

[Tom]

Francis hit on the key point with his note that "Shares of Macromedia rose $3.27, or nearly 9.8 percent, to $36.72. Adobe's shares fell $5.89, or 9.7 percent, to $54.77". This is the whole big idea behind most mergers: to enrich the directors and their financial advisors, usually at the expense of the shareholders (unless they have the good sense to sell out soon: take the money and run). It's not at all likely they were thinking about possible benefits to software users.