As a current software engineer at Adobe, I was really disappointed when I got the internal email announcing this this morning. It's reminiscent of Microsoft's anticompetitive behavior in the early 00s. Figma is the better product and Adobe knows it - but instead of using that to light a fire under them and work harder to create a better product, Adobe just used its deep pockets to make the problem go away. I was already planning on leaving the company for other reasons but this is the nail in the coffin for me.
So smart for both Adobe and Figma. Figma posed a serious threat to Adobe and it makes sense for them to do it. The losers are all of us poor sods who were happy Figma customers.<p>Just goes to show that if you want an outsized exit multiple the best way is to put a gun to a $100B company's head.
I don't understand how this acquisition is not anti-competitive behavior. It was such a joy to see Figma's growth and technical innovation, and now it will just get eaten by the established power.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Inc.#Anti-competitive_practices" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Inc.#Anti-competitive_pr...</a>
And now all of the Figma users are saying "Oh [crap]... now I need to find a new tool to use." When is the last time Adobe acquired something and it improved? They destroyed Fireworks and Dreamweaver when they acquired Macromedia (which they only did because they wanted Flash). At this point I'm tempted to swear off Adobe products entirely -- except that the combo of Lightroom and Photoshop are the industry standard for photography.
This is probably the only tech acquisition that's ever made me sad. I just hate Adobe so much. The nightmare of their installer, the weird store with horrible designs popping up when you activate normal ui stuff, the difficulty in canceling a subscription, and the stasis in their product and ui. Oh and the sloppiness of Lightroom on mac with it's weird ui and that it didn't even import and manage photos well.<p>I've been so happy to have Adobe out of my life these last 10 years. I never even cared about the cost.<p>And figma has been so admirable, one of the best browser based apps. Always squeezing incredible performance out of the web with their crazy c++ engine. And their fast pace of delivering new features, often reworking ui just for the craft of it. It's been fun to just read the release notes.<p><a href="https://www.figma.com/blog/webassembly-cut-figmas-load-time-by-3x/" rel="nofollow">https://www.figma.com/blog/webassembly-cut-figmas-load-time-...</a><p>Perhaps the silver lining will be the talent scattering, moving to and founding other companies, but for today this sucks.
Many years ago, when Adobe bought Macromedia, they acquired a tool called Fireworks[1]. This was a combined bitmap and vector editor that was incredibly well-optimised for user-interface and web design, at a time when most designers were paying exorbitant license fees to do such work painfully and slowly in Photoshop and Illustrator. Fireworks was cheap, powerful, and hugely ahead of its time. Many of the features and flows people love in Figma and Sketch were pioneered years earlier in Fireworks.<p>After the acquisition, Adobe starved Fireworks of resources and marketing. They broke things, left major bugs and performance regressions unfixed, and eventually discontinued it altogether. I'd argue this wasn't simply negligence, but a calculated decision to kill an innovative product because it threatened the profits of their cash cows.<p>As much as I hope otherwise, I believe the acquisition of Figma will go the same way. Once it's under the Adobe umbrella, the simple mathematics of profits from Photoshop and Illustrator vs. those from Figma will result in the latter being starved, stripped of functionality, and eventually left broken.<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Fireworks" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Fireworks</a>
According to the FTC the law states that mergers are illegal when the effect "may be substantially to lessen competition or to tend to create a monopoly."<p>Pretty positive this would lessen competition in design software and restablish Adobe as a monopoly. This merger should be blocked.<p><a href="https://www.ftc.gov/advice-guidance/competition-guidance/guide-antitrust-laws/mergers/competitive-effects" rel="nofollow">https://www.ftc.gov/advice-guidance/competition-guidance/gui...</a>
Just checked out Penpot, it's pretty good! Definitely usable for daily driving although I'm sure looking deeper there will be some features I miss. Going to try importing some Figma designs...
Congrats Dylan. I remember riding caltrain with you from south bay to SF, watching you sit on the floor of the train coding a "photoshop alternative" thinking your idea was crazy!
RIP Figma, I've been trying to avoid Adobe products since they charge the earth for their products and free open source options are solid alternatives. I'm expecting Adobe to eventually price gouge us to the point where we are forced to find a Figma alternative.
Show HN 10 years ago:<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4744877" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4744877</a>
As a long time Figma champion, this breaks my heart. Every time I am forced to go back to an Adobe product I find it worse off than I left it. I worry that I will no longer see rapid updates and features that benefit me as a user and not the grater "cloud ecosystem".
I’d put the odds at about 95% that Adobe will ruin Figma with bloat, 14 different “Creative Cloud” background processes, and hostile pricing models within 5 years.<p>This is huge news for Sketch.<p>However, to be honest, this is the type of acquisition that should be blocked IMO. Adobe is literally acquiring a direct competitor here.<p>To me the consumer harm is pretty clear. Instead of a more competent org (Figma) growing further to disrupt more of Adobe’s business, we’re going to be stuck with Adobe forever.<p>Great outcome for the founders and investors in Figma, terrible outcome for consumers.
Oh well, so dies an amazing product to be locked up behind a massively customer-unfriendly organization.<p>I'd even rather it have been acquired by Google where it could end up being graveyarded, there at least it would, if it survived, have been more easily available. I consider it for practical purposes no less survived now than if Google had killed it.<p>Is there anyone who could have acquired them that would have been a better custodian for such a great product?
Figma's blog post title [0] being 'A collaboration with Adobe', when it's really an acquisition seems like a warning sign.<p>[0] <a href="https://www.figma.com/blog/a-new-collaboration-with-adobe/" rel="nofollow">https://www.figma.com/blog/a-new-collaboration-with-adobe/</a>
If true, congratulations for Figma founders, and a bad day for designers that were looking for a way to escape from Adobe.<p>I don’t think that in the long term this will give Figma as an ecosystem any benefit — unless Adobe will keep it separate from the main Creative Cloud.<p>This reminds me of the Trello acquisition.<p>As a loyal Figma user I’m pretty sceptical of the future. Hope to be wrong.<p>UPDATE: Looks like it is indeed true…
<a href="https://news.adobe.com/news/news-details/2022/Adobe-to-Acquire-Figma/default.aspx" rel="nofollow">https://news.adobe.com/news/news-details/2022/Adobe-to-Acqui...</a>
seeing lots of comments about concerns given adobe's position in the market and past acquisitions...you can raise a compliant here: <a href="https://www.justice.gov/atr/citizen-complaint-center" rel="nofollow">https://www.justice.gov/atr/citizen-complaint-center</a> with references to The Clayton Act (<a href="https://www.justice.gov/atr/antitrust-laws-and-you-0" rel="nofollow">https://www.justice.gov/atr/antitrust-laws-and-you-0</a>)
Adobe has been unable to find technological innovation organically (To their credit, their stock price soared through financial engineering). Adobe has instead augmented its capabilities through acquisitions. Today's acquisition of Figma is no different.<p>And maybe that is fine. Adobe is not alone. Many big companies can only expand their capabilities through acquisitions. Those big companies are doing fine.<p>Specific to Adobe, the acquisition of Macromedia was a huge success in part because it injected a lot of talent into Adobe that stayed and succeeded. Maybe Figmates will be able to do the same.
I know Adobe is not really included in the typical anti-competitive criticism like some of the entrenched FAANG's, but this amounts to nothin less than what they do to stifle competition: Point to upstarts like Figma to justify an argument that "No, see? Competition is still possible!" But then buy out that competition to create a metastable state of:<p><pre><code> 1) dominance w/ noncom practices
2) -> disruption by a slight threat arises to threaten #1 market share
3) -> buyout of #2
4) -> return to to the desired state of #1</code></pre>
Oh hell no. Adobe is where software goes to die. Which is big shame because Figma has been great, and had serious potential to turn into the first WYSIWYG tool that would actually generate code you'd want to use. But Macromedia software was also great, and now it's mostly non-existent. I'd love for this to turn out different, but I have very low expectations.
243 times their revenue? From what I can research:
Figma took $332M in funding and has just $82M revenue for 2022.
Adobe must be betting on Figma's 60% YOY growth and probably see them as existential threat.
I'm dismayed by this acquisition but glad to see the near-universal dislike towards Adobe in this thread. How can a $150B+ company exist with this much disdain for its business practices and products? I'm guessing Adobe's primary customer base is large corporations who don't care rather than individual users?
Adobe’s PR includes the price:<p>“…approximately $20 billion in cash and stock”<p>Apparently it’s roughly half in cash according to other news reports.<p>Adobe stock is down 8% premarket, so seems like the market thinks they overpaid. (Personally I disagree — this is a good acquisition for Adobe)
For those interested in non-subscription, one-time payment alternatives, there are a few options:<p>1. Figma replacement - Sketch (1yr fee, updates optional, MacOS only)<p>2. Adobe Photoshop - Affinity Photo (Win/Mac)<p>3. Adobe Illustrator - Affinity Designer (Win/Mac)<p>4. Adobe InDesign - Affinity Publisher (Win/Mac) (I use this to create my indie magazine)<p>5. Adobe Animate - Tumult Hype (closest thing to Flash that we have today, replaces my need for After Effects + Bodymoovin, Mac OS only)
I think Scott Belsky (bechance), Chief of Product, strongly influenced this acquisition! he's been the breath of fresh air and innovation that Adobe has needed over the years! As long as he's at Adobe, we're in good hands. Frankly, I'd be glad if my existing Adobe suite at $105/month covers Figma in the fold.<p>I do wonder if this means sunset for Adobe xD, which I'm totally cool with. This whole market was Sketch's for the losing, and I suspect at some point a merger with Abstract and Invision makes sense for them.
I’m incredibly disappointed to see this happening. Adobe has a history for stagnating products and really now that Figma has sold out, their team will naturally start looking for other projects to work on that the core members have life changing amounts of money and the pressure to innovate is off. They have beaten their primary competitor.<p>It’s funny to see Wall Street’s reaction to this but they don’t understand how much Figma is eroding Adobe’s enterprise businesses. I filled in a survey a few months ago saying I have been using Illustrator and Photoshop less for basic tasks as Figma was so much faster for those. It also fixed the collaboration step. I as the CDO, had dozens of people across our SaaS company using Figma, including the CEO and COO who were using it to design all of their slide decks. At the same time in my side projects working with small product manufacturers and HR consultants I’ve got them using it too as the infinite canvas enables thinking that other established software doesn’t (MS Office, Google). Usually Adobe’s products are only in the design or maybe marketing departments. So Figma was eating out Adobe’s core whilst reaching strongly into other parts of a company that Adobe struggles to reach. The Wall Street types who think Figma was just a pandemic boosted product are blind to Figma’s true position. Just the simple fact that you don’t have to install anything and you have something that can do basic drawing and design tasks is huge.<p>Congrats to the Figma team on cashing out but RIP in stagnation.
There is literally no direction this can go but down.<p>If there wasn't enough evidence before, this seems to strongly suggest your only salvation from user-hostile corporate monoliths is community open source projects. So... Anyone want to build a multiplayer design tool? :)
Adobe charged me an “early termination” fee of $43.99 after 6 years of continuous subscription!
<a href="https://twitter.com/sunpazed/status/1561679328995250177" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/sunpazed/status/1561679328995250177</a><p>Support didn’t help, so I had to vent on Twitter before they refunded the amount.<p>Not happy with their obscure and deliberately misleading subscription model.
Boo. How come the big American mega-companies are always allowed to buy out the upcoming competitors? I thought you guys were all about free-market? Although I guess that's what complete free-market does. Oh well. For sure prepare for price hike.<p>But it'll be interesting to see what they'll do with the cutting-edge web app know-how they'll acquire from Figma.
There is no financial modeling, CEO vision, or new markets insights that can justify paying $20B, $10B or even $5B for Figma. The company is apparently not event profitable. The metrics tossed around of annual recurring revenue are the typical fools numbers used to blind people with too much paper money and little sense.<p>Adobe seems to be playing the game IBM did a few years ago, but it wont fool investors for much longer. The only winners here are the VCs at the cost of Adobe investors, and I predict this will be the deal that will push out Adobe current management in the next two years.<p>"Adobe plummets 15% after $20 billion deal to buy Figma and as earnings reveal soft 4th-quarter guidance" - <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/adobe-plummets-15-20-billion-151612362.html" rel="nofollow">https://sports.yahoo.com/adobe-plummets-15-20-billion-151612...</a>
It’s a shame that the competition authorities don’t seem to have any interest in these type of acquisitions which destroys competition and harms consumers.
Same thing happened with Architecture software eg when Autocad bought Revit - end result is extortionately priced software that many architects cannot afford because they are paid so poorly. Same will happen for graphic designers.
Screw all of this SaaS needs to die a horrible death. All of these webapps/SaaS products are just data collection apps that can lock you out at any moment. We need to get back to owning our data and installing locally.
Adobe engages in all kinds of bad faith shenanigans and dark patterns, feeling free to abuse their position. They need competition and this should be blocked by the FTC.
Really hope they won't force you to use Creative Cloud, but it seems inevitable in the long term as that's Adobe's core business model.<p>I don't even really dislike their software that much (although it is somewhat antiquated), I just hate the extreme bloat of CC and the poor integration between their apps. It's really 2000s legacy software. Instead of bringing Figma into the Adobe system, they should make Photoshop etc. more like Figma.
My heart plummeted when I read this headline. I've done UI design work in some capacity for 18 years, and have always dreamed of design software with the thoughtful UI and features of Figma. When I realized Figma was that software, it was like experiencing a miracle. Software like this <i>doesn't exist</i>. It was the first design software I paid for (yes, in 18 years).<p>And now it's going to die. I almost feel like crying.
Evan Wallace, the technical co-founder who build the Figma rendering engine and vector editor, is a web UI craftsman par excellence. Check out <a href="https://madebyevan.com" rel="nofollow">https://madebyevan.com</a> .
Fair enough. Preferred to stay clear of Adobe and their trash subscription model so naturally I feel some resentment. Was enjoying the competition and thought Figma was well ahead of Adobe to be honest.<p>I hope the deal fall through NGL
$20B is hard to say no too. Is that the new Unicorn? One piece of software basically being worth more than some first world cities?<p>Thankfully I never tried it, so I don't know what I'll miss when it's destroyed.
Okay, this is awesome - I literally had the thought of <i>"Figma is so fucking awesome, what the hell would I do without it?"</i> pop into my head multiple times today!<p>And now I know now why... Fuck! I mean, I am happy for the entire Figma team and everything they have accomplished, and everything they've given to the designer and the Internet-at-large community. But I fear this might be gradual end of it, hence my brainwaves going all crazy about it.<p>I signed up to Figma the day it was released, and it immediately became the tool I use for creating and editing vector graphics. Since then I have written well over 1,000 articles, and I can say with confidence that for 80% of those articles - all my visuals were created, edited or improved with Figma.<p>I have never spent a single dollar on the product. That was also one of my thoughts today - like holy shit, I can actually enjoy this fast interface, greater features, and insane amount of community resources for no cost?<p>Yeah, these guys did it right.<p>Let's see how the story unfolds.
This is an extremely sad sellout and a poor and obvious effort to monopolize. The fact we all know whats coming is a sign Adobe should not exist as a company anymore with the way they can treat end users/products and still get away with it.<p>I'm sure the people at Sketch are currently throwing a party that can be seen halfway across the world though.<p>Fuck Adobe.
Interesting context on this deal from a month ago:
<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/25/figma-growing-inside-microsoft-testing-longtime-deal-with-adobe.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/25/figma-growing-inside-microso...</a>
CEO of figma, Dylan Field, has a thread on Twitter about it: <a href="https://twitter.com/zoink/status/1570385551517437952" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/zoink/status/1570385551517437952</a>
Man, that is bad news for news for consumers. But also seems like Figma could have gotten more money? $20B is a _ton_ of money but it's the only real competitor in Adobe's space I think. Or at least the only threat.
In contrast to the negativity here, I am optimistic that Adobe won't screw this up. The past acquisitions are not necessarily an indicator of the future.<p>Adobe consistently upgraded Photoshop even when they had virtually no competition. Their CC subscription pricing is actually an incredible vaue if you use it as a professional. Figma has a huge user base, and a team that is excelling where Adobe is struggling - collaborative cloud-first design software.<p>It is very possible that a 20B acquisition is in part Adobe investing in talent to address a gap in their expertise. This isn't 20 years ago, it is now.
This is really sad :( There are 2 tech companies that I really hate. Whatever they touch they ruin - Oracle and Adobe.<p>On the other hand, there's now a lot of room for other startups to go Figma-way and try to capture market.
That’s too bad. Good for the individuals and groups benefiting from it, I am happy for you, but I expect Adobe will ruin this product for users. Especially since this is an anti-competitive acquisition.
"Dark patterns" will be coming to Figma soon with this. I'd suggest anyone running an Adobe product to check your outgoing connections while running one and then trying to block them. It's not just isolated to their products. PMS doing "market research" for their products have led students on to do work for them without paying them. (For anyone skeptical on the accuracy of anything here, feel free to email me at the address in my bio, I'm happy to provide evidence)
> <i>Adobe is deeply committed to keeping Figma operating autonomously and I will continue to serve as CEO, reporting to David Wadhwani.</i>[0]<p>"autonomously". There, I fixed it for you :-) More seriously, I do hope that this will become an exception to the rule, but I'm not getting my hopes up.<p>0: <a href="https://www.figma.com/blog/a-new-collaboration-with-adobe/" rel="nofollow">https://www.figma.com/blog/a-new-collaboration-with-adobe/</a>
I honestly miss Adobe from 10 - 15 years ago. It feels like they were a product company back then, as opposed to an upsell-advertising company (they are now). I don't use their products a lot these days, but when I do; I am always surprised by the slowness & bloat.<p>I'm not too sure why the Figma people decided this was a good idea - but makes me grateful for Affinity & Sketch still being available.
Incredible product, journey, and financial success. Nevertheless, I bet this was not an easy decision. Losing independence even with all the other great aspects isn't ideal. Just a guess, but I bet the prospect of doing layoffs compared to selling played a role. Gitlab/Monday are public comps and currently worth less than Figma's last valuation.
Since this is a thread of Adobe and some people might know this:<p>In the late 80s and 90s many of the window managers were based on PostScript. Sun News was an extension of PostScript and Next was based on Display PostScript.<p>How did licensing work back then. Could Sun have OpenSource News? I mean it did implement PostScript but my understanding is they were not using actual Adobe code.
Not sure how I feel about this. Figma is great and all their feature releases have been impressive, but I feel it was due to competition and worry about similar products coming in from big corporations (like Adobe XD). I feel this competition really push Figma hard.<p>Now being part of the same owner, just makes it feel like any aggressive progress will just stall out.
The forward looking statements disclaimer at the end of their announcement post is such a sharp tone shift it's almost funny - <a href="https://www.figma.com/blog/a-new-collaboration-with-adobe/" rel="nofollow">https://www.figma.com/blog/a-new-collaboration-with-adobe/</a>
In at least less than 1 year or two, Dylan Field will leave Adobe / Figma.<p>This is the entire operation of how companies with tons of VC capital just work.<p>Now I see commenters complaining about 'anti-trust', 'anti-competition', etc. Given that you are now doing this, why not also complain about the very practises that violate anti-trust laws and anti-competition laws regularly done by Big Tech in general by blocking those deals and giving massive fines in the billions which will deter these sort of acquisitions and anti-competitive behaviour, like what happened to Plaid and VISA for example and the up-coming investigations into the Microsoft, Activision-Blizzard acquisition, etc.<p>We should not turn a blind eye on this and do nothing because it is Amazon, Google, Microsoft, VISA, or even Adobe or any other company that is part of Big Tech and does acquisitions like this.
I didn't know adobe was so hated. They're still my best example for software making. I'm not a designer, and three times in my life I've had design needs that I tried to solve using free (as in beer) software, and it just never worked well. Adobe always just worked and fast.<p>First time was a book that had to be made ready for publication quickly (InDesign - my intro to paid adobe software), second time was 4k video editing (here I truly tried so many alternatives, free & paid), third time was basic motion graphics (after effects is brilliant and easy). Their software costs a lot of money though -- maybe their payment plans are what have made people bitter. I dislike the plans too. Maybe I came to adobe late, but I love their software.<p>Out of all the shady organizations that charge my card when I don't expect it, I mind adobe the least.
> By bringing powerful capabilities from Adobe’s imaging, photography, illustration, video, 3D and font technologies into the Figma platform, we can benefit all customers involved in the product design process, from designers to product managers to developers. Figma’s community will ultimately have a continuous user experience across ideation, screen layout, interaction design and content editing, allowing product designers and their stakeholders to operate at a whole new level.<p>Adobe's clueless middle managers are already adding "push my useless pet feature to keep my chair busy" into their OKRs.<p>Basically, they are an orc army to be unleashed to destroy one of Adobe's few viable competitors. Like mafia thugs with a baseball bat.
Surprised to see all the "hate" for Adobe. They provide an awesome suite of products only $55 per month. I've had nothing but good experiences with them. Is it wrong to pay for software when you get a truckload of value out of it? No other creative software even comes close.
If I had to pick a single product that I thought could upend an entrenched competitor, this was it. Congrats to everyone who benefitted, but it's a bit of a letdown to see them go this route and give up the opportunity to build a lasting company.
Everyone should remember that the blog Steve Jobs wrote criticizing Adobes security was deleted at the start of the pandemic in June, 2020.<p>From the blog “Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009. We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash. We have been working with Adobe to fix these problems, but they have persisted for several years now. We don’t want to reduce the reliability and security of our iPhones, iPods and iPads by adding Flash.“<p>Here is the discussion we had
<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23654011" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23654011</a>
I also hate Adobe with all my heart! Had the displeasure to work there for a few months and the company is super lame. They don't build anything at this point and just sell overpriced subscriptions. I basically ran from there... not for me.
Adobe consolidates. Where is the Blender equivalent for Photoshop? I don't think GIMP is the answer, but it seems like Photoshop is ripe for an open source competitor in the category. I just don't know of any realistic candidates.
> In addition, when used in this communication, the words “will,” “expects,” “could,” “would,” “may,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “seeks,” “targets,” “estimates,” “looks for,” “looks to,” “continues” and similar expressions, as well as statements regarding our focus for the future, are generally intended to identify forward-looking statements. Each of the forward-looking statements we make in this communication involves risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements.<p>Indeed.
End of the line for Adobe XD if this happens?<p>I like Figma a lot, but I'm glad I have an old copy of Sketch to fall back on. Adobe and its forever subscription model will eventually get applied to Figma.
downside: Adobe acquired yet another piece of software, one that even competes with Photoshop XD.<p>upside: I now can roll out Figma anywhere we have adobe CC licenses without a rigamarole from management
I have paid for Adobe CC for years now, since they started subscriptions. As much as I hate shelling out $29.99 a month for something I use maybe 5 times a month, it always just worked for me. I've started looking at alternatives, but it's hard to spend the time learning the new product vs just spending the $30 a month. I think they've tried to raise mine several times. If I can ever not renew at $29.99, I will probably prioritize finding the time to try other stuff.
A win-win situation:<p>Figma founders get money.<p>Figma competitors get a huge developed market to sell to when Adobe inevitably only sells Figma as part of their hellish subscription model.<p>Okay, Figma users lose. But that was a given.
A lot of antitrust sentiment here. If you care to cajole the feds into action - here is the public service email for reporting antitrust concerns to the FTC - antitrust@ftc.gov
Not a frontend dev or designer, but I've seen people doing amazing things with Figma and it seemed loved all around. Counting the days for Adobe to completely wreck it.
Just realize that Evan had left Figma before <a href="https://madebyevan.com/figma/" rel="nofollow">https://madebyevan.com/figma/</a>
I'm not a big fan of Adobe. Many years ago, I spent about $600 on their Creative Suite. A few months later I bought a new camera only to realize Photoshop didn't support the RAW format, and I needed to purchase an upgrade to the latest version of Photoshop that had just been released. $600 software that I purchased less than a year ago and it was already obsolete...<p>That being said, I always wished Figma had the ability to import/export PSD files.
$20b? I guess hyper inflation is a thing. How long will they need to recoup the purchase? How many customers does figma have and how much do they pay to justify $20B?
'Adobe acquires Figma for $20B using revenue from years of price increases e.g. [0]<p>[0] 'Adobe has more than doubled the price of Creative Cloud in Australia since 2014 (2017)' <a href="https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2017/05/reminder-renew-your-adobe-cc-subscription-before-june-5-to-avoid-price-hikes/" rel="nofollow">https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2017/05/reminder-renew-your-ad...</a>
Please, Adobe, please don't add Figma to Creative Cloud. It would be great to keep using it, I'm not going to change my file system to case-insensitive.
Oct 2020 Figma was valued at $2.05 billion.<p><i>Here's how the CEO of Figma went from a computer science intern to the head of a $2 billion company that's challenging Adobe for the love of designers across Silicon Valley - Oct 2020</i><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/figma-ceo-dylan-field-design-software-startup-2020-10?IR=T" rel="nofollow">https://www.businessinsider.com/figma-ceo-dylan-field-design...</a>
Cool Edit Pro was one of my favorite programs ever. Adobe bought it and renamed it to Audition. I still can't believe how fast it went down after that.
You know who should be celebrating? Sketch and InVision. Sketch has signaled a desire to go multi platform, which has been a problem for large corporate customers with mixed platforms.<p>InVision failed to standup their own UI design tool, but the collaboration suite is still good and they were starting to death spiral. This would be an immense opportunity for both to become the only viable immediate alternatives to the Adobe threat.
I notice the overall sentiment is negative here, but Adobe is one of few companies I can think of that seems to acquire solid companies with solid products and a view to keep and develop them over time. Macromedia's stuff fitted into the Adobe ecosystem very well, as did the stuff from Behance, Fotolia, Aviary and Mixamo. As a long time Adobe customer, I'm feeling very positive about this move.
Adobe is a disgusting company. I remember they charged me $150 just to be able to cancel my fucking accidental subscription to their awful creative cloud.<p>R.I.P Figma
Whoa, $20b seems like an eye watering amount for a tool like this.<p>I guess it goes to show how little I know about all of this, but surely a company with Adobe’s resources and prestige could just engineer something like this for less themselves?<p>Seems crazy to me. I guess it’s mostly about removing competition and giving people less options to not use an adobe product rather than the product itself that has value?
Signed up for adobe trial to use a feature of it that was not included in the free version. Forgot to cancel during free period, tried to cancel subscription they wanted a 120$ early cancellation fee. Charged it back on my cc and blacklisted adobe from charging my cc ever again. Sad say for sigma users have always heard really good things from friends that use it.
Wild to me that they are getting bought for $20B yet didn't think they could make it through this macroeconomic environment. Or maybe just too hard to turn down that amount?<p>Figma is one of the most vibrant platforms I've seen in recent memory — genuinely it goes well for all involved, including the users.
As much as folks may be unhappy Adobe is taking over Figma, I'm sure the team over at Figma are elated. It's a successful exit for a much loved company and I'm sure the hard working team that built such a fantastic product are being well rewarded by such a large acquisition.
The Story Behind My Investment In Figma (2015) - <a href="https://semilshah.com/2015/12/06/the-story-behind-my-investment-in-figma/" rel="nofollow">https://semilshah.com/2015/12/06/the-story-behind-my-investm...</a>
Adobe really is just the Telco or siriusXM of software companies.<p>complicated and dark pattern pricing models
free subscription extension to avoid cancelling
bundle installers of unrequested software like antivirus<p>its all a sign that the product is over priced and there isnt enough new innovation
Adobe and Figma says that Figma will remain autonomous. I think if this acquisition is treated the same way as the MS / Github model then things will be fine. Im a little surprised at the timing. This deal must have been in the works for quite awhile.
I was burned by Adobe for the last time a few years ago. Since then, I avoid them like the plague. I loved Figma, but now I will be searching for an alternative. Adobe ruins everything they acquire, and its only a matter of time before Figma follows suit.
It says a lot about the current state of the tech ecosystem when almost every acquisition is seen to be a death sentence for a product. What would a world look like where people rejoiced at these kinds of things? Well…we will probably never know, sadly.
A controversial viewpoint: Figma is selling the user data - labeled design, all for training the next big AI killer app - prompt generated UI/UX design.<p>Google had an interest, but Adobe upped the offer.<p>Yes, I know this will be downvoted to hell:)
For the last 12 years I did everything to avoid Adobe at any cost (I used it from version 5). Creative Cloud was my biggest nightmare and single point of every crash of macOS and Windows that I had.<p>It’s a very sad day for designers.
<a href="https://royandre.medium.com/goodbye-adobe-4f26fa48e28a" rel="nofollow">https://royandre.medium.com/goodbye-adobe-4f26fa48e28a</a><p>Let's hope Figma doesn't become the next Dreamweaver.
Not a fan of Adobe and not really a fan of Figma but they are things. Alot of people talking about Macromedia Fireworks and Dreamweaver etc in here is a bit curmudgeonly-old HN. That's <i>forever</i> ago now as far as web/design. Yes it was sad/and Adobe made a mess, but alot has changed since then that lead to the environment where Figma rose. Not to mention probably most of the audience of users that are really into Figma weren't even born when all the golden era Flash and stuff was going on. The youngins don't understand big business Adobe, and they probably don't like the 'vibe', but they also aren't totally against it if they can keep using the product they owe a lot of their career to.
They will be fine I think.
Adobe will use Figma as a bridge between Creative Suite and Experience Cloud for bigger creative/mkt agencies and enterprises. I doubt they will destroy Figma, but the focus will be different.
Every designer I know moved away from XD to Figma and now Adobe are effectively forcing people into XD as Figma is dead in the water now.<p>I suppose this leaves Sketch? I imagine they are over the moon at this news.
I want to be happy for everyone who made Figma happen and their success but at the same time it makes me sad to see Adobe buying it. I am hoping Adobe won't mess up with Figma in future.
For once it would be nice if someone would value a world in which their baby isn’t ruined by a big competitor, more than a world in which they have 20B in their bank account.<p>But I’ve yet to see that happen.
Well, mediocrity will create an opportunity for a new thing to emerge. I'm currently building my own figma for board games, so perhaps I'll focus on it sooner rather than later.
I have had good luck with Lunacy [1]. I hope they get some users from this sale.<p>[1] <a href="https://icons8.com/lunacy" rel="nofollow">https://icons8.com/lunacy</a>
No acquisition of this size should ever be allowed. Hard cap at no more than $1 billion in 2022 dollars. If Adobe wants Figma users then Adobe should... compete for them.
Announced officially <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32850591" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32850591</a>
Time to back the open source alternatives - <a href="https://patreon.com/akiraux" rel="nofollow">https://patreon.com/akiraux</a>
Adobe is a nasty, predatory company. They charged me like $200 just for the ability to cancel my Adobe subscription. Caught me with some fine print.<p>Will never touch Figma now.
Like Oracle. Buy nice things because you can and you hate colourful light shining through te windows of your dull offices. Paint it gray and resell it.
I was <i>just</i> looking at Figma open positions and was wondering why they've been on a hiring spree while most other companies aren't.<p>I guess I know now.
I don't understand US anti-trust enforcement protocol. Is this before or after anti-trust process?<p>I think there will be more than one person against this.
XD will die, no matter what Adobe says.<p>Funny thing is Adobe let Fireworks languish after acquiring Macromedia, which was a good tool as it was to do UI.
As an ex-Adobe employee (not a fanboy, no inside information whatsover) and a Figma addicted I'm happy for Adobe and Figma.<p>I also believe this was a logical ending.
I was wondering and actively discussing what Figma means to Adobe and happy to be right on my expectation on the number. This is Adobe's largest aquisition (its Whatsapp moment).<p>Congrats to both. I wasn't the happiest employee, but I believe it's a great company for the creative kind and I wish both a good journey.
here to complain about bloomberg.com - couldn't find any content to read on that page.<p><a href="https://www.figma.com/blog/a-new-collaboration-with-adobe/" rel="nofollow">https://www.figma.com/blog/a-new-collaboration-with-adobe/</a>
this is seriously sad. It is so hard to build a great product, and so easy to f things up. Given Adobe track record, there is litterally more chances to see things going south for figma
Honestly my disappointment in the Figma team will be immeasurable if they sell out to Adobe.<p>You took us all to a great place and threw us to the lion. Could have had customers for life but I’ll be canceling as soon as you transition over to Adobe.<p>What pains me the most is they could have easily been the ones to make Adobe obsolete if they had vision and values. In 10 years it would be a Nokia VS iPhone situation with us asking how Adobe became Nokia.
This shouldn't surprise anyone. Figma followed the typical path for a company/product taking on massive amounts of venture capital.<p>If you <i>are</i> shocked by this, please take note and stop investing in products and services (no matter how good) that are investment vehicles, not real businesses.
I think it's hilarious how many libertarian-minded people want government to step in with an anti-trust lawsuit but in everything else, they want no involvment with government. hmm..
Figma was never on track to change the world. They were an Adobe clone from the beginning, out-executing them, but fundamentally exactly as anti-innovative.<p>Not that $20B is anything to shake a stick at — but real innovation in this market will be worth one to two orders of magnitude more. Figma was scratching at this with their "whole org collab" vision and FigJam, but they lacked the vision to crack it, and their execution has been faltering since their early talent started jumping ship. Selling to a desperate Adobe, distressed by public markets, is the perfect chance to "fail up."<p>Why am I disappointed in Figma? Because they could have been so much more. Because in effect, they have held the creative world back by doubling down & cashing in on Adobe's corruption of design tooling. Play Adobe games, win Adobe prizes. It's just a shit game, and peanuts compared to latent opportunity in this space.
I'm surprised Figma is worth that much. For a while I was considering bootstrapping a business in this space and I was never very impressed with what I saw of Figma. Does not look that hard to compete with or replicate.