The news broke in September of last year when the American software company Adobe announced the agreement with the collaborative design platform Figma. An agreement that reached the figure of $20,000 in cash and stock. With this signature both companies hoped to mark a new era in creation.
But the plan seems to have drawbacks and that is that the The United States Department of Justice will prepare a lawsuit antitrust to block the offer of the company that was founded by John Warnock and Charles Geschke, which could be a reality next March.
A setback in the deal
Everything seemed to indicate that the agreement between both companies would close in 2023where it is already agreed that it will be the co-founder and CEO of Figma, Dylan Field, who will continue in the direction of Figma, relegating David Wadhwani, president of Adobe’s digital media business.
However, in recent hours, the US media Bloomberg News has reported that the lawsuit from the US Department of Justice is pending and thus block the agreement. Given this fact, Adobe has not been slow to declare that they maintain Figma «constructive and cooperative talks with the regulators of the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union, among others”.
The competent US authorities remain ready to adopt harsh measures in the expansion of large companiesIn fact, already in December the United States Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit to try to stop Microsoft from its attempt to acquire Activision’s Blizzard video game publisher for $69 million.
The deal, announced in September, would help Adobe grow its portfolio and acquire technology to enhance existing programs in its Creative Cloud suite used by businesses and independent designers. The company has stated that Figma would thus generate more than $400 million in revenue.
However, the consequences of the United States’ lawsuit seem to make an appearance, such that Adobe shares have already begun to fall, standing at 5%. However, despite everything, Adobe and Figma expect to close the transaction in 2023.
A new era for creativity
Currently, the digital age is marked by the use of tools and platforms for Adobeand it is that throughout its history and since it was founded back in 1982, it has tried to change the world through innovative digital experiences. Such proof of this can be found in the revolution that it offered with the creation of images with Photoshop or Indesing, the dissemination of electronic documents through PDF or in its expansion through digital marketing with Adobe Experience Cloud.
For his part, figma became a pioneer in web product design since its founding in 2012 by Dylan Field and Evan Wallace, and since then has worked to make design accessible to all. Figma has offered the market the possibility of collaboration among all those who design interactive web and mobile applications through sophisticated design systems and a powerful ecosystem of developers, thus increasing their productivity.
Dylan Field, co-founder and CEO of Figma has highlighted Adobe’s “incredible innovation and experience, especially in 3D, video, vectors, images and fonts”, something that will allow them to “reimagine even more end-to-end product design in the browser, while also building new tools and spaces to empower customers to design products faster and easier.”
With the agreement reached between Adobe and Figma, it is intended to achieve a powerful development in terms of creativity and productivity it means. With collaborative work, both firms will accelerate creativity on the web and will be able to design great products, thus expanding the market and thereby growing rapidly within the sector.
Shantanu Narayen, President and CEO of Adobe, commenting on the deal, clarified: “The combination of Adobe and Figma is transformative and will accelerate our vision for collaborative creativity.” And it is that in the words of Narayen himself, the greatness of his company is based on the ability they have to create new categories and thus offer cutting edge technologies through organic innovation and inorganic acquisitions.
