ADOBE TO ACQUIRE MACROMEDIA

[bipto]

My money's on GoLive to survive... Why would Adobe kill one of their own...?

Because DW is the preferred development tool of most web development shops and GoLive is a punch-line. Personally, I'd be very sad to see Fireworks go. It's a real web design tool and much better at many tasks than Photoshop/Image Ready, IMO. On the plus side, buying one package from one software company will probably save me money in the long run.

Man, this is unexpected. I guess we'll see what happens, but my gut tells me this is a very bad turn of events for those of us who hitched their wagons to the Macromedia train...

 

[narco]

Wait a minute, they still make FREEHAND? And let me get this straight: people still use it? Why?

I remember when I got my first design job back in '94/'95, I was FORCED to use this wretched program. I don't know, I played around for it forever, read the manual, but never really "got it," I guess. Oh well, now that it'll soon be dead I can rest assure knowing I'll never have to use it again!

But I agree, this news is huge. A lot of people I know hate Adobe in a Microsoft-like way, this will just give them something else to bitch about.

Fishes,
narco.

 

[JRM PowerPod]

Don't worry guys i'll keep developing Mac versions of Freehand and Fireworks. They rule!!! Surely Director would stay. Dreamweaver and Flash would have to be safe as a house.


SERIOUSLY APPLE SHOULD BUY ADOBE, THEY WOULD OWN ALL CREATIVE SOFTWARE MAC AND PC. That would rule. APPLE HAVE PLENTY OF CASH STASHED

 

[zelmo]

Shocking news, simply shocking.

Will Adobe buy Quark next?

 

[wtmcgee]

...april fools?

 

[Matthé]

what this means

is that you will finally be able to copy paste from illustrator to flash without any hassle

 

[Uma888]

this is greate news IMO, does this mean we will finally see coldfusion for the mac?

i think dreamweaver/flash should stay, fireworks should go.

good luck to adobe, i hope they continue to make excellent products in the future,

as someone said, forget creative suit 2, get creative suit 3, with dreamweaver

 

[Blue Velvet]

Shocking news, simply shocking.

Will Adobe buy Quark next?

Quark is still a privately-held company, I think.

This is going to end the bundled deal with Quark & Freehand... lo & behold, one quick glance at Quarks page shows it to be missing...

This is a serious move by Adobe to monopolise the creative's workspace. I'm surprised that no regulatory eyebrows are being raised.

 

[littlejim]

I'm blown away but can't make up my mind how bad this is.

In some bizzarre way I'm happy - I was totally convinced that Microsoft would end up buying Macromedia (and, eventually, axeing all Mac support).

 

[tamtam]

Wow, this is big news. Adobe is a bigger fish in the pool now.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

Because DW is the preferred development tool of most web development shops and GoLive is a punch-line. Personally, I'd be very sad to see Fireworks go. It's a real web design tool and much better at many tasks than Photoshop/Image Ready, IMO. On the plus side, buying one package from one software company will probably save me money in the long run.

I know, but I've seen a small migration the last couple of years from DW to GL, specially from those who had a really BAD experience with DW4... (Not unlike the Quark -> InDesign migration that's slowly going on... designers are kind of slow... )

And GL is better integrated with the rest of Adobe's line than DW... So if you get the complete Creative Suite, you pretty much don't need anything else for desktop publishing or webdesign...

So I stand by my first guess... (not that I will be that surprised if I'm wrong, but still...)

 

[Bakey]

I just hope they don't kill Director.

For the first time in my life I've felt that "sick" sensation when reading a headline!!

My first 'gut' reaction was immediately to think that Director has reached the end of the road; what with Macromedia pumping ever more R&D money into Flash, just what Adobe will do with it scares the living day lights out of me!!!!

I just hope they [Adobe] sees the potential Director still has, although somewhat a niche market nowadays, if it goes I really wouldn't know where to turn!!!!! Yep, I'm bricking it right now....

 

[nighthawk]

SERIOUSLY APPLE SHOULD BUY ADOBE, THEY WOULD OWN ALL CREATIVE SOFTWARE MAC AND PC. That would rule. APPLE HAVE PLENTY OF CASH STASHED

Adobe is bigger than Apple -- I don't believe that it will ever happen.

I really do not like this at all. The only think keeping Adobe from a complete monopoly on Desktop Publishing is QuarkXPress and Quark needs to do some serious restructuring/planning to just maintain their current marketshare. There is CorelDraw too, but that is such a tiny fraction of the market that it is barely worth mentioning. I really hope that this merger does *not* succeed.

 

[AoWolf]

Hmm big news indeed amazing that it wasn't rumored or leaked about anywhere.

 

[evilcat]

here's how i see it...

Now I'm a PC _and Mac user, and use both Adobe and Macromedia suites, so my guess is:

Illustrator stays, Freehand goes
Photoshop stays
Fireworks replaces the inferior ImageReady and (maybe) also becomes the basis of PS Elements, which is now a specialised RGB only tool
Flash stays, but gets better SVG integration
Flash Player (possibly) merges with Acrobat Reader
Acrobat stays, gets Flash integration
GoLive goes, Dreamweaver stays - a far superior tool. Perhaps some of GoLive's design tools make their way into Dreamweaver?
InDesign stays to kill Quark.
Coldfusion

... hmmm, probably stays. Something involving XML from InDesign may happen there.

So we get a standard print suite made up of Photoshop with 'ImageReady' (Fireworks), Illustrator, InDesign

A standard web suite with Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash

A premium suite with Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash Pro, Acrobat and InDesign

 

[AmigoMac]

Corelwhat? ...

Now the big fish has arrived... Who will come after Adobe? Hurry up apple...

 

[iGary]

Quark is still a privately-held company, I think.

This is going to end the bundled deal with Quark & Freehand... lo & behold, one quick glance at Quarks page shows it to be missing...

This is a serious move by Adobe to monopolise the creative's workspace. I'm surprised that no regulatory eyebrows are being raised.

Quark is private.

I hate them, but what are you gonna do (and they know that).

 

[Blue Velvet]

Now I'm a PC _and Mac user, and use both Adobe and Macromedia suites, so my guess is:

Illustrator stays, Freehand goes
Photoshop stays
Fireworks replaces the inferior ImageReady and (maybe) also becomes the basis of PS Elements, which is now a specialised RGB only tool
Flash stays, but gets better SVG integration
Flash Player (possibly) merges with Acrobat Reader
Acrobat stays, gets Flash integration
GoLive goes, Dreamweaver stays - a far superior tool. Perhaps some of GoLive's design tools make their way into Dreamweaver?
InDesign stays to kill Quark.
Coldfusion

... hmmm, probably stays. Something involving XML from InDesign may happen there.

So we get a standard print suite made up of Photoshop with 'ImageReady' (Fireworks), Illustrator, InDesign

A standard web suite with Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash

A premium suite with Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash Pro, Acrobat and InDesign

Excellent post except for one point. Acrobat will remain in the print bundle whatever it's called... it's far too important to us print designers to leave out IMHO. And most of us would never dream of going near Flash, usually...

 

[Porchland]

Questions, questions, questions

Looking across the product lines of Apple, Adobe and Macromedia, I wonder how this will all play out.

Does the merger make more likely that Apple will launch a more pro-style version of iPhoto to take on Photoshop? Or does Adobe now have the market power to force Apple to choose between an Apple pro app and an Apple-based Photoshop?

I have used Photoshop less since getting iLife '05, but iPhoto is about a clone stamp away from obviating my need for Photoshop.

 

[Thataboy]

This is incredibly bad news, for the simple reason:

It is now a race between Microsoft and Apple as to who can buy Adobe first. Whoever buys Adobe can eliminate the Windows/Mac versions (a la Logic) and just about kill off the other OS.

Obviously I think the danger here is Microsoft buying Adobe and doing this (since Adobe is so pricey, I think Apple would continue to sell Windows versions to make money).

Then again, maybe Apple has been preparing for this all along (by incorporating some of the underlying creative tech into Tiger, such as Core Image and iPhoto).

But yeah, a part of me wishes Apple had the money to buy Adobe just to be safe

 

[Les Kern]

Now I look pretty smart when I decided on 200 copies of Adobe Creative Suite and adding it to our "base set" of apps. I like Dreamweaver though, and Fireworks is nice. Bye, bye Freehand. Bye, bye Dreamweaver and Fireworks. Hello Adobe Flash. Watch for a melding of GoLive and Dreamweaver's features... maybe a new name? "Dreamweaver" is really an odd name you'd have to admit. "Dream"? "Weaver"? Sounds less like an html editor and more like a Aspyr product.

 

[Porchland]

Adobe is bigger than Apple -- I don't believe that it will ever happen.

I really do not like this at all. The only think keeping Adobe from a complete monopoly on Desktop Publishing is QuarkXPress and Quark needs to do some serious restructuring/planning to just maintain their current marketshare. There is CorelDraw too, but that is such a tiny fraction of the market that it is barely worth mentioning. I really hope that this merger does *not* succeed.

Wrong. By market cap -- which is the usual measure of a company's size in the marketplace -- Apple is twice as big as Adobe.

Apple is a $29 billion company. Adobe is a $15 billion company.

 

[Porchland]

But I agree, this news is huge. A lot of people I know hate Adobe in a Microsoft-like way, this will just give them something else to bitch about.

Count me in. I love my Photoshop and Acrobat 5, but can you say BLOATWARE? Acrobat takes forEVER to load on my Mac and Apple machines.

 

[mk_in_mke]

What will be Apple next move?

Come on guys... For those with a short memory:
- Macromedia has tried to create an Editing application, it failed and Apple bought the unit to create FCP
- Macromedia has tried to create a Photoesditing application and failed

Many of Macromedia's attemps have failed and they eventually focused on Webcentric applications (dreamweaver / flash / fireworks / contribute...) and content delivery (director, Authorware). Freehand is an excellent tools and Adobe have mimic'd it some of its features.

I remember paying the BIG bucks for Studio lines such as Diretor studio for the mac and Authorware studio for the mac (for which I paid $4,995 in 94 / 95). Macromedia has some good products but a very poor organization and a lousy marketing machine.

They have become a natural target for Companies like Adobe, Apple and even Microsoft. Adobe made their move first and hopefully, they will integrate the macromedia people and products nicely into their organization... I am pretty sure that in one year fully rebranded versions of Dreamweaver and flash will appear... Freehand should disappear (Illustrator is so big!) Golive and Dreamweaver will merge and Flash and Fireworks will be rebranded they are crucial to today's web design and delivery.

Big questions: What is Apple Next move? Adobe has not played nice recently with our beloved company ... On the other hand: Apple has focused on Video / sound / music... Wait for other announcements by Apple pretty soon!

 

[Platform]

If this is really true I cannot see why they should sustain both Dreamweaver and GoLive... one of them has to go (no pun intended )...

My money's on GoLive to survive... Why would Adobe kill one of their own...? (Just as Freehand will be slaughtered and Illustrator will go on...)

Well in my opinion they will use dreamweaver because it is better