UK competition regulator finds Adobe’s purchase of Figma could reduce innovation

Good. It absolutely would reduce innovation.<p>Adobe have already canned XD, which was a poor alternative to Figma, but Adobe had to at least pretend to compete.<p>Problem is, even though Figma have captured a large proportion of the digital design market, they took on so much funding that their only real options are a purchase or IPO.<p>I don’t believe that subscriptions alone would bring in enough for the kind of returns the VCs are looking for, especially as it’s almost free for individual designers.<p>And so the enshittification begins.

I interned at the CMA in 2014 and had several friends working on merger control.<p>This [1] page has more details on the case, and has an invitation to comment at the bottom. In my experience, detailed comments from relevant industry participants, e.g. customers, competitors, are given serious weight and consideration, and very few are supplied. It&#x27;s a useful mechanism for those concerned about a tech merger.<p>&quot;Invitation to comment: closes on 18 May 2023 3 May 2023: The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is considering whether it is or may be the case that this transaction if carried into effect, will result in the creation of a relevant merger situation under the merger provisions of the Enterprise Act 2002 and, if so, whether the creation of that situation may be expected to result, in a substantial lessening of competition within any market or markets in the United Kingdom for goods or services.<p>To assist it with this assessment, the CMA invites comments on the transaction from any interested party.<p>These comments should be provided by the deadline set out above.<p>Contact Please send written representations about any competition issues to:<p>xxxx@cma.gov.uk&quot;<p>Other cases can be found here [2].<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gov.uk&#x2F;cma-cases&#x2F;adobe-slash-figma-merger-inquiry" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gov.uk&#x2F;cma-cases&#x2F;adobe-slash-figma-merger-inquir...</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gov.uk&#x2F;cma-cases?case_type%5B%5D=mergers&amp;market_sector%5B%5D=electronics-industry" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gov.uk&#x2F;cma-cases?case_type%5B%5D=mergers&amp;market_...</a>

Interesting. Right now Figma is THE standard for UX design. It completely blew Sketch away thanks to Covid. I really haven&#x27;t heard UX designers talk about going back to Sketch or any other program, in fact I&#x27;ve only heard multiple people talk about how Figma is just getting better with their new update (especially around prototyping). Personally, I&#x27;m not a fan of Adobe, but it seems like there&#x27;s a lot of UX designers who simply don&#x27;t care if Adobe buys them or not.

I think many Figma users are concerned with Adobe&#x27;s purchase of Figma. I&#x27;ve already removed Adobe products twice from my life (professional and personal) and would prefer to not have to do it again.<p>That said, I can&#x27;t see the acquisition being a problem for competition in this particular space. It&#x27;s not hard to imagine someone just making figma-but-different and becoming the next big thing. There are also countless other existing options.

The way out: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;penpot.app&#x2F;" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;penpot.app&#x2F;</a>

They were losing the battle for the design software market, so they bought the competition. The less innovative company bought the more innovative company. Of course it would reduce innovation.

If you make it harder for startups to achieve profitable exits does that incentivize or disincentivize innovation?

On the contrary, the ability for startups to be purchased by larger companies is the majority of the financial incentive towards creating startups. If competition regulators prohibit these transactions, it will harm the startup ecosystem and reduce innovation.

I&#x27;m sure it will produce innovative business practices inflicted on a captive userbase.

How does it work if the UK blocks it and the rest of the world doesn&#x27;t?

I love figma, dislike the merger. Have hopes for this open source alternative <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;penpot.app&#x2F;" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;penpot.app&#x2F;</a>.

I would love to see an independent alternative to the Adobe menace

Unsurprisingly. [0]<p>Did people here really think that the regulators are going to allow this merger to happen?<p>Adobe might as well pay the $1BN break up fee and the Figma will just use that to fund their IPO.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=33919862">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=33919862</a>

I wonder if Adobe will respond by saying the UK isnt a good place to invest in as well.

Lol now do Autodesk

If you want to talk about reducing innovation then have a look at Apple&#x27;s walled garden. They&#x27;re preventing so many innovative new apps from ever being created by being inaccessible to young&#x2F;poor developers.