Adobe buys up Macromedia

[SensoVision]

Adobe is to buy Macromedia, in a deal that will create a single, dominant player in graphics and Web software.

Adobe will pay $3.4bn in stock, for which it will acquire products such as FreeHand, Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Flash which are the main competitors to some of its own portfolio.

Adobe sees the buyout as crucial in its bid to create wholly integrated software and to make PDF the dominant (if it is not already) document format - the addition of Flash to its portfolio, gives it the most dominant multimedia file format for the Web. Flash also has a strong and growing presence on mobile phones.

'Customers are calling for integrated software solutions that enable them to create, manage and deliver a wide range of compelling content and applications - from documents and images to audio and video,' said Bruce Chizen, Adobe CEO. 'By combining our powerful development, authoring and collaboration software - along with the complementary functionality of PDF and Flash - Adobe has the opportunity to bring this vision to life with an industry-defining technology platform.'

Significantly, Adobe will be in a much stronger position to counter the threat to PDF posed by features Microsoft is expected to introduce in Longhorn, the next version of Windows, which will enable the creation and distribution of application-independent documents.

Nonetheless, despite Chizen's determination to expand its $100mn document server business, established applications such as Photoshop and Illustrator generate its largest chunk of profit and should only benefit from the addition of Macromedia technologies.

However the future of some applications must now be in doubt. Adobe's GoLive Web authoring software may lose out in favour of Macromedia's Dreamweaver while Freehand will be looking for a second reprieve. (The software was almost acquired by Adobe in 1994 when Adobe bought Aldus; however licensing issues meant that it instead went to Macromedia). Fireworks, Macromedia's bitmap graphics app, may also be threatened.

The two companies are tight-lipped on the subject.

'While we anticipate the integration team will identify opportunities for cost savings by the time the acquisition closes, the primary motivation for the two companies' joining is to continue to expand and grow our business into new markets,' Chizen said.

The acquisition is expected to be completed in the fall. Chizen will continue as CEO while Stephen Elop, president and CEO of Macromedia, will join Adobe as president of Worldwide Field Operations.

Information on the deal will be posted and updated at www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/invrelations

Source of the article: http://www.computerbuyer.co.uk/buyer/news/71555/adobe-buys-up-macromedia.html

Good I'm not anymore on Windows and not using DreamWeaver anymore, so I shouldn't afraid that new versions of DW may may become more expensive or something, at least till the time it wouldn be ported to Linux Anyway I hope that this deal wouldn't cause any problems to people who using this WYSIWYG editor...

[Queen Bee]

Actually, this sounds pretty cool. I'm not really pro company-merges of any kind, but I like both Adobe and Macromedia and it would be neat to see them work together. Of course, this might not work out at all, but I'm hoping for the best.

[Hope]

Well these are two huge companies and that always scares me. Both have very good products. Both have really high prices also. I think this will not help us in any way. I think this makes for less creativity. But then again, what do I know.

[Queen Bee]

Both have really high prices also. I think this will not help us in any way. I think this makes for less creativity.

This is my only real worry... It seems like merges always result with problems like this. I would just like to see how good things could turn out if they worked together.

[SensoVision]

Do you remeber any good example of working together of bi companies which buys one another? just remind what happend with AllTheWeb it's team from what I know start to work on Yahoo features and ATW was lost as competitor on the market...

[Andy]

This is very scary to me.

These big companies tend to go crazy when they want to buy up the competition. Here we see a price of 3.4 billion dollars for software that competes with free software like "The Gimp", "mozaic", "pdf995", "html-kit", "linux based tools".

At the end of the day, the software is used to place some graphics and text on the web.

I am very concerned that billions of dollars are involved.

In case anyone didn't know what a billion is, it is:
1,000,000,000.00 in US cents

I still prefer to use free software for my web site creation.

Maybe we will see a product called MacroNightmareWeaver ?

[Queen Bee]

Do you remeber any good example of working together of bi companies which buys one another?

As far as software merges is concerned, Corel and MetaCreations is a better example. They ended up taking popular software like Bryce and Painter and making it even better. And... This software is still very popular and useful among graphic and digital artists.

Here we see a price of 3.4 billion dollars for software that competes with free software like "The Gimp", "mozaic", "pdf995", "html-kit", "linux based tools... I still prefer to use free software for my web site creation.

Free software will still be free and expensive software will still be expensive. People like Andy that prefer using free software will continue to use it regardless of these expensive merges. I don't think that any of the other software companies will lose loyalty over this...

If this merge does raise the prices and make it harder for people to purchase, Adobe and Macromedia can kiss our behinds. More people will look towards free software or warez to meet their needs.

Even still, I would like to see if, working together, they could modify software like "Photoshop" to produce and convert simple flash movies (It could happen, couldn't it?), as well as give PDFs a more stronge and useful presence on the web.

[susieq]

Also consider this:

Adobe and Macromedia

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq: ADBE) has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Macromedia (Nasdaq: MACR) in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $3.4 billion. Under the terms of the agreement, which has been approved by both boards of directors, Macromedia stockholders will receive, at a fixed exchange ratio, 0.69 shares of Adobe common stock for every share of Macromedia common stock in a tax-free exchange. Based on Adobe’s and Macromedia’s closing prices on Friday April 15, 2005, this represents a price of $41.86 per share of Macromedia common stock.

The combination of Adobe and Macromedia strengthens our mission of helping people and organizations communicate better. Through the combination of our powerful development, authoring and collaboration tools – and the complementary functionality of PDF and Flash – we have the opportunity to drive an industry-defining technology platform that delivers compelling, rich content and applications across a wide range of devices and operating systems.

By combining the passion and creativity of two leading-edge companies, we will continue driving innovations that are changing the ways people everywhere are experiencing and interacting with information. more at
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/invrelations/adobeandmacromedia.html

Courtesy of:
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/invrelations/adobeandmacromedia.html

[SensoVision]

I've just find out that Macromedia before it was bought out was planning to release Macromedia Flash under Linux http://news.com.com/2100-7344_3-5170061.html but guess it's history now and Adobe wouldn't do same thing...

[susieq]

but guess it's history now

  Hmmm, Well it is never too late to have an opinion.

Found this, if it helps out at all, may help clear up some trifling queries.

http://www.macromedia.com/macromedia/adobe_macromedia/faq/

[SensoVision]

thanks for head ups, Sue! I've check their sites before but as for now didn't find any Linux related news. Maybe in future they would change politic to Open Source OS.