Adobe Buys Macromedia for $3.4 Billion

[SHANE-D-PAIN]

Will Fireworks still be under development etc...

I use Fireworks for lots of things, ill be sorry to see it go!!!

[AdigaMan]

...Interesting!

Next move: Adobe will acquire Opera...!!

[laura2005]

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.

Nothing happened against Microsoft, it's just that from time to time they need to make a comedy of antimonopoly action to make people hear the big boys say: "oh look WE are looking after YOUR interest you can go to sleep now" and of course nothing happened since THEY are the same who are behind the monopoly and are agitating the medias for antimonopoly action, better play the opposition comedy themselves isn't it more clever nobody sees it

Saying that I don't think that Microsoft has so bad products and SUN has copied many Microsoft's ideas, contrary to popular's beliefs

Adobe and Macromedia have both good products, but I think that Adobe is gonna kill some products from Macromedia and keep only the ones they don't have: this is rational from business point of view.

[Shawon]

i hope Macromedia still exists and isn't all the way merged into Adobe, so it could still continue it's products as Macromedia and still be under Adobe or something. but if they are merging altogether, then i hope the Macromedia programs don't go. they should merge their programs to create a new really good program. like merge Photoshop & Fireworks, Illustrator & Freehand, etc. i hope they don't get rid of Dreamweaver or Flash or anything.

anyway i hope it turns out for the better of both companies and designers and developers. i wouldve rather had Macromedia buy out Adobe though, i've always like Macromedia more for some reason.

[emerjone]

Wow. This is some crazy stuff. I'm sure there will be plenty of good to come out of it as long as you don't end up paying up the @$$!!!

[Young Twig]

Heh... With the exception on Flash, PDF plugins, I don't use any of their products.

[M.Mahgoub]

what a bad news.

[bubaslubas]

To me, this represents more than just the loss of choice... I've always liked Macromedia's philosophy of web 'democratization', and their push for innovation. Their tools made it possible for web designers and developers like me to create and deploy amazing solutions that effectively make our web experiences much easier and more pleasant. So, I guess I'm saddened by the news.

I've always thought of Adobe as a sleepy mammoth, living off its good achievements, such as Photoshop - I hope this acquisiton doesn't bring Macromedia's innovations to a stalemate.

As for the duplicate softwares issue, I think most people are clearly underestimating Macromedia's products - to me, Freehand is FAR superior to Illustrator (heavy and slow beast), and Fireworks kicks ImageReady's *** (not to mention that for web production, it is also a lot better than Photoshop). Dreamweaver and Flash are untouchable, but what to say about the growing (and incredibly underrated) ColdFusion server, the forgotten Fontographer (this one might actually get a push back from Adobe, I think), Director, Homesite, the futuristic Central, the Flex language model, Breeze... All these great software packages.

Man, they sure had vision. I hope they stay that way, even under Adobe.

[Fotinakis]

I don't know guys, I think maybe Dreamweaver will improve because of this merger (not that that affects me very much, I don't use Dreamweaver anymore because I've found the power in hand-coding).

Still, (TAKE NOTICE ADOBE), if Adobe wants to have a good reputation and be known for producing quality software (not just a big monopoly of second-rate products, e.g. Microsoft) they need to be less conformist and STOP with product-activation----we will buy your products, but once we have, don't make us have to beg you to use them.

And, hopefully they'll come out with full-supported Linux compatible versions of some of their software <cough> Photoshop </cough>. Well, I can dream can't I?

[mobilephones]

I dont care for Coldfusion as I'm happy with ASP & PHP and if I learnt anything else it would be ASP.net but I nearly jumped into it back years ago but glad I didn't as its future always seems to be uncertain and its out positioned by these other much more popular Scripting languages.

Someone mentioned that livemotion will be dropped, I think this happened as i have not herd of anything about it for ages. I just hope After Effects continues to progress as its an amazing program and would love to see some of its features in Flash.

"DIRECTOR" this is a very powerful program and has a hardcore user base and I hope this will be pushed further.

Someone also mentioned Homesite - that was killed off years ago wasn't it when Macromedia purchased Allaire and merged with Dreamweaver i.e. Snippets.

[cmpolis]

Just like Oracle did: buy out the competition. I would have thought Macromedia would have bought Adobe. I hope this means that Photoshop will have better integration with dreamweaver.

[Rynoguill]

I just want to point out to everyone that reads this thread, and please read this next line carefully
coldfusion is not dead!!!!
and now back to your regularly sceduled programming. I swear, if I hear one more asp, php punk out there that thinks they know everything about the web development world say that coldfusion is dead im going to hunt you down and force you to understand just how alive it is. Last I checked, dead is not even a relative term. there are hundreds of thousands of coldfusion developers out there. Many if not most of the fortune 500 companies use it, almost all goverment agencies use it, and countless other sites. Do we have the penetration of php? no, but thats because not every twit with an emachines and a modem can pick it up and pay 4 bucks a year for hosting. Does that mean its dead? Not quite. Coldfusion is, and always has been focused at an enterprise market. That doesn't mean that its not a viable option for every day blog and "look at me, ive got a website thats not geocities but close" use. And most of you guys that keep saying its dead have either a) never used coldfusion to start with, b) used it a long time ago (any time previous to cfmx 6.1 means you don't know what youre talking about any more) or c) just like your cult like following of open source because you have it in your head that opensource = free. /rantmode=off

sorry for that, but i just really get tired of people talking out the side of their neck proclaiming that coldfusion is dead when it is very much alive and kicking.

As for this buyout by adobe, I can only hope that it means even a brighter future for a product that already is supernova size as it is. But 10 years from now, I would probably use the current version of coldfusion over anything php will put out between now and then.

[Nadia P]

by: Geosite:
You wouldn't believe the reaction the Macromedia Dreamweaver forum, which is amazingly pro-Microsoft.

How on earth do you come up with that? Just because people are telling you to stop bashing Microsoft in every one of your posts, how does that equate to them all being pro-Microsoft.

Many regulars revere the Microsoft monopoly, yet they're crying "The sky is falling!" over the Adobe-Macromedia merger.

Again with the Microsoft stuff...

the majority of the discussion involves the possibilities and consequences of this buyout... Pretty much like what is being discussed here and on other forums....

Get a grip David :-)

Nadia

[geosite]

Get a grip David :-)

Nadia

I have a grip, thank you. The Macromedia forum is very obviously pro-Microsoft, as are many of the spinoff forums.

Make of it what you will, but I find it very revealing.

[RandomActs]

what a bad news.

I agree, After the initial shock, I'm just really bummed about this one. But there is always the hope that the government regulators, stockholders, and just the general public will not let this merger happen. Guess we'll see in the fall and I for one am crossing my fingers that it does not.

[geosite]

I agree, After the initial shock, I'm just really bummed about this one. But there is always the hope that the government regulators, stockholders, and just the general public will not let this merger happen. Guess we'll see in the fall and I for one am crossing my fingers that it does not.

WHAT government regulators???

[Fotinakis]

But there is always the hope that the government regulators, stockholders, and just the general public will not let this merger happen.

<ahem> Uh, yes, but.....it has happened, hence this discussion and your participation in it .

WHAT government regulators???

Didn't you know? The bunch of little men in tie-dye shirts running around----yeah, their job is to "not let this merger happen."

[geosite]

<ahem> Uh, yes, but.....it has happened, hence this discussion and your participation in it .


Didn't you know? The bunch of little men in tie-dye shirts running around----yeah, their job is to "not let this merger happen."

Oh, those people. Do they still exist? I heard the government may be keeping a couple around as souvenirs, but I believe most of them have long since fallen prey to deregulation, etc. If they aren't up to keeping Microsoft on a leash, I don't think they'll bat an eye over Adobe's newest acquisition.

I'm not saying I'm happy about the situation in general - though some good might come out of this particular merger. After all, it will compete with Microsoft, right?

[dashonice]

What does this mean for Corel. For years the graphic/web/phtoto market has been dominated Adobe and Macromedia, with a small share left for corel. I think corel is down for the count.

[Nadia P]

I think corel is down for the count.

From something I read yesterday, Corel actually has marketshare in a few European countries. can't recall specifics .. so who knows ..

It is all conjecture anyway- nothing further will be known until the actual closure of the deal - 3-9 months

Nadia

[Edman]

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

It was just a realisation of me being an uninformed tart when it comes these company price tags

[tickedon]

I hope that Adobe aren't stupid and keep key Macromedia products (Dreamweaver, Fireworks etc...). It wouldn't make sense to buy a competitor who's products have a large percentage of the market, and then simply let them go to ruin.

I use the entire Macromedia Studio MX, along with a number of Adobe products - if they combined Stuido with Adobe's Creative Suite, then it'd be one hell of a nice bundle of products - Expensive, but probably cheaper than buying each product seperately

Adobe's products have largely had a fixed $150 upgrade fee for existing users, whereas Macromedia's have been $199+. This is one area where I wouldn't mind Adobe making a few changes, and having fixed $150 fee's for the large majority of products - it'd certainly save me a few $$ anyway

Overall, this could be good or it could be bad. I'm personally hoping both Macromedia and Adobe have enough sense that it'll be good rather than bad.

[laura2005]

I agree, After the initial shock, I'm just really bummed about this one. But there is always the hope that the government regulators, stockholders, and just the general public will not let this merger happen. Guess we'll see in the fall and I for one am crossing my fingers that it does not.

The stockholders and Government Firstably I don't think Adobe is as strategic as Microsoft, it concerns a niche market though it's a big niche it doesn't really concern the mass public, secondly, in general stockholders and Government are at FIRST rank - at least the Big Ones others don't count - who want merging (Concentration of power is what Gov also wants). Of course they have to play a comedy of opposition in front of public opinion but they are united by the same interest, if you don't think so listen to what Sir James Goldsmith - who was at that time the biggest Stockholder of General Motors - said about the "establishment triangle" (big business, big government, big unions) in the Mike Milken's affair - the trader who won 1 billion per year :

http://edwardjayepstein.com/archived/milken4.htm

'Sir James Goldsmith who has been both a client and an opponent of Milken's, saw the conflict proceeding from the threat to take power away from those who had held it. "I don't know whether or not Mike Milken realized at the time that he had found a way of financing an immense revolution in America, but now he has witnessed the full power of the establishment triangle: big business, big unions and big government." He then added, " As I European, I witnessed the same alliance trying to avoid change and neutralizing those responsible for it."'

Maybe that's it Macromedia is going to be "neutralised" they innovate too much Adobe wants to calm them down "to avoid change"

[tested]

One thing I liked about the Macromedia policy is their full "no hassle" 30-day trial downloads.

Adobe's PDF reader is a HUGE download which runs slowly, while Macromedia Flash player (or flashpaper) is small, lightweight and efficient.

Besides Photoshop, Adobe isn't doing anything for me.

I really find it ashame that Macromedia, which certainly is a more dynamic, younger and flexible company is now bought by this old static dinosaur.

Maybe a new Macromedia-like company will rise soon or later.

[M.Mahgoub]

big problem if Adobe change the interface of Macromedia bundle. i really couldnt think about it.
imagen that adobe removes the vector tools or apply thier stupid layer concept in Fireworks. then i will use Fireworks MX 2004 for the rest of my life.