Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

DaveSW

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 6, 2010
379
0
With $40 Billion in cash, Apple should buy Adobe and take control of Photoshop,etc. and probably improve or KILL flash.
 

MikhailT

macrumors 601
Nov 12, 2007
4,582
1,325
Not going to happen, there are so many issues to overcome that Apple just won't do it.

First, Adobe isn't a private company you can just "buy". A hostile takeover is not that easy to pull off and often ends up more expensive than the company's worth.

Second, Apple has the skills to produce their own software to compete against Photoshop, in fact I use PixelImator to replace Photoshop with. Apple should buy that instead.

Third, Apple is already handling the Flash issue. They'll just not use it. I agree with that.
 

NT1440

macrumors G5
May 18, 2008
14,610
20,753
Why? Apple doesn't care about flash, and they have much better things to do with their time than work on photoshop.
 

DaveSW

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 6, 2010
379
0
That would have to be a hostile takeover and those usually cost a lot more than what the company is worth.

But I still agree.

it doesn't have to be a hostile takeover. I'm sure majority of Adobe shareholders and employees would love to be a part of a innovative and cool company such as Apple.
 

spinnerlys

Guest
Sep 7, 2008
14,328
7
forlod bygningen
This has been discussed several times already, have a look here:
http://www.google.com/cse?cx=011016...e:forums.macrumors.com&hl=en&as_qdr=all&meta=

And Adobe is probably a lot more worth than 40 billion USD I presume, and if not, it will be more than just some billions.

And why should Apple really buy Adobe?

Apple bought Final Cut in the late 90s, acquired Final Touch (became Color) in the 2000s and as a recent news story revealed, they laid of 40 members of the Final Cut staff.

Apple does not really seem to be interested in the media creation industry, it's a nice bonus, but not one of their priorities.

It is the general consumer that is the target. Look at the iPad.
 

DaveSW

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 6, 2010
379
0
Why? Apple doesn't care about flash, and they have much better things to do with their time than work on photoshop.


photoshop is a huge moneymaker for Adobe.


Apple can take control of photoshop, premier, flash, pdf, etc. . and they can improve them, kill them, or do whatever they want with them.
 

NT1440

macrumors G5
May 18, 2008
14,610
20,753
photoshop is a huge moneymaker for Adobe.


Apple can take control of photoshop, premier, flash, pdf, etc. . and they can improve them, kill them, or do whatever they want with them.
Again, why would they want to do that?
 

DaveSW

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 6, 2010
379
0
This has been discussed several times already, have a look here:
http://www.google.com/cse?cx=011016...e:forums.macrumors.com&hl=en&as_qdr=all&meta=

And Adobe is probably a lot more worth than 40 billion USD I presume, and if not, it will be more than just some billions.

And why should Apple really buy Adobe?

Apple bought Final Cut in the late 90s, acquired Final Touch (became Color) in the 2000s and as a recent news story revealed, they laid of 40 members of the Final Cut staff.

Apple does not really seem to be interested in the media creation industry, it's a nice bonus, but not one of their priorities.

It is the general consumer that is the target. Look at the iPad.


Adobe's market cap is only $18B+.

http://www.google.com/finance?q=adobe

And if Apple were to buy Adobe, it'll be a mix of cash + stock. With Apple's market cap they can definitely buy Adobe.

Aside from the additional revenue, Another reason is purely defensive. Better Apple than say...Microsoft, Google, etc.
 

NT1440

macrumors G5
May 18, 2008
14,610
20,753
Defensive? Why is anyone going to buy adobe?

Do you know anything about the corporate world?
 

DaveSW

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 6, 2010
379
0
You know why Oracle bought Peoplesoft and Siebel? to get rid of competition and off the hands of SAP or Microsoft.
 

miles01110

macrumors Core
Jul 24, 2006
19,260
36
The Ivory Tower (I'm not coming down)
Adobe's market cap is only $18B+.

http://www.google.com/finance?q=adobe

And if Apple were to buy Adobe, it'll be a mix of cash + stock. With Apple's market cap they can definitely buy Adobe.

Aside from the additional revenue, Another reason is purely defensive. Better Apple than say...Microsoft, Google, etc.

a) Buying a company is not as simple as comparing market caps.

b) If Microsoft or Google wanted to buy Adobe they would have done it already.

c) You are underestimating Adobe's value as a competitor and ally to all three of these companies.
 

DaveSW

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 6, 2010
379
0
Defensive? Why is anyone going to buy adobe?

Do you know anything about the corporate world?


do you?

a) Buying a company is not as simple as comparing market caps.

b) If Microsoft or Google wanted to buy Adobe they would have done it already.

c) You are underestimating Adobe's value as a competitor and ally to all three of these companies.



a) i know, just saying Adobe is not worth more than $40B like what spinnerlys said.

b) I mentioned a purely hypothetical scenario

c) I might have simplified things a bit
 

NT1440

macrumors G5
May 18, 2008
14,610
20,753

What does anyone have to gain presently by buying Adobe? Is there any direct threat right now of it being bought?

Both Google and MS have to play it safe when it comes to acquiring standards right now because they have histories or are currently involved in anti trust investigations.

Please explain to me why any company would really want to buy adobe right now when it does fine on its own and wouldn't be a huge advantage over just supporting their products as they do now?
 

spinnerlys

Guest
Sep 7, 2008
14,328
7
forlod bygningen
Adobe's market cap is only $18B+.

http://www.google.com/finance?q=adobe

And if Apple were to buy Adobe, it'll be a mix of cash + stock. With Apple's market cap they can definitely buy Adobe.

Aside from the additional revenue, Another reason is purely defensive. Better Apple than say...Microsoft, Google, etc.

I was looking for that information, but didn't know where. Thanks.

18 Billion is a lot of money, that is half of what Apple currently has as savings.

I doubt they would go that route, as they have to maintain the Windows side of the applications as well to make a sizable profit out of Adobe's products.

It could also lead to spreading their resources to thin, even though they will take over the staff of Adobe.


Wow, I just realized, that Adobe has about 8600 employees, and Apple has three times more than that, 34.300.


But I still think (IMHO), that it will be unwise for Apple to acquire Adobe and that it is highly unlikely to happen.

Apple will spend their resources in more forward looking technologies.
 

*LTD*

macrumors G4
Feb 5, 2009
10,703
1
Canada
Would be a pain in the ass and a waste of money.

What good reason is there for Apple to shell out that kind of money for Adobe anyway? Apple doesn't want Flash, and if Apple really cares (it seem they don't at this point) about introducing a competitor to the Creative Suite, there are much cheaper ways of doing it.

If you want to put a dent in Flash or steer the industry away from Flash, just keep introducing killer products that don't do Flash (thus forcing content providers to support Apple), use your influence to rip on it and badmouth it at every turn (PR is key) and get some powerful allies on your side (Google.) Much cheaper and the problem almost takes care of itself.
 

DaveSW

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 6, 2010
379
0
What does anyone have to gain presently by buying Adobe? Is there any direct threat right now of it being bought?

Both Google and MS have to play it safe when it comes to airing standards right now because they have histories or are currently involved in anti trust investigations.

Please explain to me why any company would really want to buy adobe right now when it does fine on its own and wouldn't be a huge advantage over just supporting their products as they do now?

1) take control of a lucrative revenue stream (photoshop, etc.).

2) intergrate adobe products into existing Apple products (iLife, iWork, whatever.). Most Adobe users are Mac users.

3) Control adobe air - adobe air is being positioned by Adobe as a platform for delivering rich applications outside the mobile browser and across multiple operating systems/platforms (android, blackberry, etc.). this is a THREAT to the iphone, ipod touch, iPad, etc.

4) previous anti trust investigations did not stop Microsoft from pursuing Yahoo, or Google from pursuing DoubleClick or Twitter.
 

Intell

macrumors P6
Jan 24, 2010
18,955
509
Inside
I think it would all end in tears and frowns. Apple would kill of so many things and make the few things that would remain Mac only. Like they did with Final Cut.
 

MikhailT

macrumors 601
Nov 12, 2007
4,582
1,325
Where did you get that - most Adobe users are Mac users?

Mac OS X has 75 million users, Windows has more than one billion.

I think he meant that half of the Photoshop owners are Mac users which was stated by one of the Adobe engineers' blog.

Remember it's about total number of Adobe users per platform, not total platform users.

You can have 20 billion Windows users and 10 million Mac users and yet Adobe probably could end up with just 10 million sales from both platform.
 

jaw04005

macrumors 601
Aug 19, 2003
4,513
402
AR
Where did you get that - most Adobe users are Mac users?

According to John Nash, around 50 percent of Photoshop's user base is Mac-based.

However, as far as the rest of Adobe:

I asked Adobe (just before they released CS3) why it supports Mac OS X. I received a response from Russell Brady, PR Director of Adobe. According to Mr. Brady, Adobe’s sales in its last financial year (2006) “were 77% Windows and 23% Mac. In some markets, such as the creative professional space, the Macintosh percentage is even higher. The Macintosh market is huge for Adobe and, by most estimates, we’re the largest supplier of Mac software on the planet.”

http://theappleblog.com/2007/04/09/why-do-software-companies-support-the-mac/

Mac OS X has 75 million users, Windows has more than one billion.

That's such a misleading statistic as the bulk of that 75 million is iPhone and iPod touch owners, which despite what Apple says are not running Mac OS X.

Apple could afford Adobe. It would cost them at least 25 billion (assuming a 20 percent premium), but they won't because trying to manage another subsidiary would be a PITA and they just don't need them.
 

kdarling

macrumors P6
Just some comments...

A lof people forget (or never knew) that Adobe didn't create Flash, Macromedia did.

Adobe bought out Macromedia in 2005 partly because they were afraid that Microsoft was going to.

Macromedia had all the major web tools at the time... IIRC: Cold Fusion, Dreamweaver, Flash, FLEX, others I can't recall.

I was a little amused today by this ZDNet article, "Adobe, stop being such a wuss", which proposes that Adobe drop all Mac support.
 

MikhailT

macrumors 601
Nov 12, 2007
4,582
1,325
http://theappleblog.com/2007/04/09/why-do-software-companies-support-the-mac/

That's such a misleading statistic as the bulk of that 75 million is iPhone and iPod touch owners, which despite what Apple says are not running Mac OS X.

No, those stats are what Apple reported for OS X total install base. They are not including iPhone OS users.

mac_users.jpg
 

LethalWolfe

macrumors G3
Jan 11, 2002
9,370
124
Los Angeles
1) take control of a lucrative revenue stream (photoshop, etc.).
Apple is a hardware company, not a software company. The App Store helps sell iPhones, the iTMS store helps sell iPods, FCP helps sell computers, etc.,. *If* Apple bought Adobe the first thing they'd do is probably severely discount the Mac version and eventually kill the Windows version. This is what they did w/Shake but the backlash from doing it w/Adobe would be huge, IMO.

2) intergrate adobe products into existing Apple products (iLife, iWork, whatever.). Most Adobe users are Mac users.
I've seen Apple's attempts at integrating outside apps together (ex. Final Cut Studio) and it's not pretty.:eek:


Lethal
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.