Adobe Buys Macromedia for $3.4 Billion

[thody]

I didn't even know these companies were worth this much. $3.4 billion for Macromedia? I wouldn't even give a billion.

I agree with most of the rest of what you said...but what are you basing this comment on?

[swiftone]

I hope they don't nix Fireworks. I have grown very attached to it and DW.

[cawebdevelopment]

I hope they don't nix Fireworks. I have grown very attached to it and DW.

I agree. Fireworks and Dreamweaver are all I need for web development and I like them very much the way they are now.

[thody]

I hope they don't nix Fireworks. I have grown very attached to it and DW.

I'd say it's more likely that they add some Photoshop features to Fireworks.

[Smarky]

I doubt they will kill it, but they need to do something with it to define it more from there other products they now have in the joint portfolio. Maybe they will take it in a slightly different direction. Like a half way house between Illustrator and Photoshop or something.

[kennyisnotdead]

I would love to see:

Creative Suite 2.1
-Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, and Acrobat

Sounds kinda scary, never thought I would see this day come. But hey if Boston can win the world series, Adobe can buy Macromedia.

[Archbob]

Integration fo flash and Photoshop would be nice(but only if it didn't cost $1000)

[thody]

Integration fo flash and Photoshop would be nice(but only if it didn't cost $1000)

How exactly would you like them integrated? Did you mean Illustrator?

[sputza]

I remember reading some market analyst’s article a few months ago saying that Adobe would try this in the near future.... I guess it’s the future now

I don’t know how to feel. I love products from both side.

Dreamweaver is better than GoLive. Photoshop is better than Fireworks. Illustrator is better than Freehand. Etc.

I really hope they don’t mess around too much with the good products from either brand.

Things I would like to see: Better Illustrator integration with Flash, better Premier Pro integration with Flash and Freehand to just go away

Only time will tell...

[lerxtjr]

I'm pouting...

Designers seem to prefer using golive and programmers seem to like dreamweaver better. Adobe products work better on MAC's than PC's (due to being memory hogs) and Macromedia products are more well-liked by people who use PC's than MAC's...probably because they appreciate the ease of use.

No matter how this goes down, we're going to hear a large groan over the coming months by one side or the other and maybe both when we go to buy our first upgrade.

[timothy567]

I bet they keep the brands separate for at least a couple years and then slowly kill off the weak version of each product. Could you imagine the product Adobe studio MX 2006. It probably cost like $5,000. Hopefully good things will come out of this, better products without the huge increase in price.

[WealthStream]

It would be great if they could merge the best aspects of each product into even newer and more improved versions. If this can happen, and prices can be kept at a reasonable rate, this aquisition could turn out very well for web developers everywhere.

[electronicpakrat]

IMHO, I have never considered it correct to compare Fireworks with PhotoShop. Instead, I feel that comparing it to ImageReady is more of a fair comparision. Which is why I think Adobe may bundle BOTH PhotoShop and Fireworks together in the next CS version. This way, ImageReady gets the shaft instead.

[Zapita]

How exactly would you like them integrated?

for example.. if you export a flash image as illustrator, all your original colors go to hell (and believe me, this is something i've needed and exporting it as bitmap, makes me loose quality)

[mobilephones]

i hope we get After FX & Flash integrated, flash with the AE time line would be cool.

[mobilephones]

Flash is probably worth that much alone, the future with flash is huge and the mobile & PDA market has a lot to do with this purchase.

$3.4 Billion? *spits out cup of tea* geez, that's a lot of money... kinda reminds me the time when Microsoft bought Hotmail.com all those years ago for around $300 million.

Makes me wish I could make a site/company/brand that'd be picked up for a couple of million *laughs*

[mobilephones]

I use Firworks & Photoshop, couldn't live without either. Dont diss Fireworks it is a nice program that does what it is meant to very well.

i think they will kick some products from maromedia like flashpaper, fireworks. Quite crappy software....

oh my god....with this merger, they may be the next microsoft....

Whats next man....Adobe buys Discreet??

[thanthou]

That's exactly my point. If the main competition is gone, what continually drives the motivation of innovation? This is not saying that Adobe isn't innovative... heck look at their products! However, it is a lot easier to become stagnant when someone's not at your back door trying to break in.

Check out this CNet Article. Looks like the buy is to fend off Microsoft. And they've got a good chance of doing it now, too.

[davidjmedlock]

Hm, well, I'm very interested (and very scared) to see what will happen with ColdFusion. I'm sure they'll keep it around, but will they continue on the same path that Macromedia has taken in making it better with each new version or just let it sit...

[mobilephones]

Yes I agree that competition can be good in most cases but many of us use Adobe & Macromedia products daily and integration is more important at this point.

As for how - how far will we see these products go.... Photoshop reached its peak several versions ago and each release is just adding new and cool but not vital features. Illustrator is pretty well evolved too and so is After Effects and Premiere and this has a lot to do with Adobe been in business longer and some of these products were at several versions before many of the Macromedia products were released. Although programs like Freehand & Director were been sold under different names.

That said when Macromedia burst on the scene it was powerful and historic, Flash opened a whole new world and I witnessed the first versions and real web animation was now possible. Flash is brilliant and so is Dreamweaver but both still have more potential to offer creative's and developers more ways to push the boundary's of the web and the consumer market.

I'm not so sure this is such good news. One of the great things about competition is that it creates new technology and tools. Without this competition, I hope things don't get 'stale'. Although an avid Photoshop and Illustrator supporter, I am concerned about what will happen with Dreamweaver.

[geosite]

You wouldn't believe the reaction the Macromedia Dreamweaver forum, which is amazingly pro-Microsoft. Many regulars revere the Microsoft monopoly, yet they're crying "The sky is falling!" over the Adobe-Macromedia merger.

My assessment...monopolies and conglomerates are generally bad, but this one might not be as bad as people fear. At least Macromedia wasn't bought out by Microsoft.

I can't imagine Adobe killing or wrecking a program as wonderful as Dreamweaver, the flagship of web design. They'll settle the Photoshop vs Fireworks debate once and for all - hopefully by retaining (and improving) both.

ColdFusion is an evolutionary dead end anyway; terminate it.

My worst nightmare is a Flash PDF file that takes an hour to load. On the other hand, Macromedia might succeed where MM failed and turn Flash into something that's actually useful.

I just hope they don't kill their SVG program. My hunch is that they'll promote both, as they've already got a lot invested in SVG anyway, and they don't want to leave a gaping hole for potential competitors to fill.

Which brings us to the competition. If Adobe does screw up really big with its new toys, it may fuel the open source movement, encouraging the development of alternative programst that can finally take on Dreamweaver and Photoshop.

I just hope the price tag doesn't knock me out of the picture.

[revsorg]

I just can't see this as good. It's sure to reduce customer choice when they stop producing programs. They'll be firing a bunch of tallented developers just because they double up. They are really clutching at straws suggesting that there is some sort of benefit to the consumer from combining PDF and Flash. The beneficiaries are Macromedia shareholders who can retire to beach-front properties, and Adobe, who just removed the biggest thorn from their side.

[mobilephones]

I think Photoshop should incorportate a lot of Firworks's good points like faster work space, faster production, supererior web exporting features, streamlined workflow for web design (Photoshop needs to load either as a web graphic package or as a Printer package on start up etc).

I have always prefered Illustrator but I hope they bring in Freehands Flash integration plus many other features.

I've never used GoLive and never needed to as Dreamweaver is just so good and I'm sure that will be dropped but that will also mean Dreamweaver will work with Photoshop a lot better and be part of it.

There is a lot more to think about and some exciting things could happen, I'm happy to see this as we needed a shakeup in the software department and INTEGRATION is what I'm most looking forward to.

I hope to see:

Adobe Photoshop as usual ... drop Fireworks except for some functions from it to throw in PS.
Drop freehand .. Illustrator has always been no.1
Drop GoLive, Dreamweaver (one of the two big ones) is a far superior product.
Drop SVG, Flash (the other of the two) is obvious.
Cold fusion ... not sure about this one though I think it's on its way out anyway ...
Flashpaper I personally like, though PDF's do a lot more of course. I dont really care too much about this one.
Contribute should stay.

Those are the most important ones to me ...

[seraphjordan]

Another Microsoft-type monopoly in my opinion. I'm always leary of big corporation merges. More huge corporations, the harder the small guys have to work.

On what will happen as regards design, a merging of those two would be quite interesting to say the least. The possibilities are endless.

[nix112]

I can't believe how many people are dismissing ColdFusion. They've already stated they will continue development on it, and that the latest version was hugely popular, especially in enterprise level intranet web applications. ColdFusion is not dead.