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ADOBE TO ACQUIRE MACROMEDIA

Comes as quite a surprise to me, for sure. I'll be interested to see how it ultimately plays out, but it will be some time before everything hits the fan. They'll still have some regulatory hurdles to face, although I don't think anything will prevent this from happening.

We just went through a large ($4 billion) merger over the past 18 months, and it's still ongoing. These things take time, and they don't always play out as the big guys think they will.
 
Dreamweaver and GoLive both have strengths and weaknesses. Dreamweaver's big Mac weakness is that its Mac version is so awful compared with the Windows version... so yes, I'm hoping for BOTH to survive and maybe get a little specialized. If GoLive doens't have to compete with Dreamweaver, perhaps they can de-bloat it a little.

Yes, Microsoft could kill off Apple tomorrow by buying Adobe.

'Course Adobe's great at buying software and jacking up the price far beyond reason - think Audition - as is, for that matter, SPSS (DeltaGraph). None of these companies are good for the Mac - they've been abusing us for years. InDesign and Photoshop are very Mac friendly, but Acrobat puts Macs as second tier, as do other Adobe products - when you can get them at all.

My big question is - how is this legal? Oh, wait, never mind - the people in the White House don't believe in anti-trust laws. So anything goes.
 
Bakey said:
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.... :confused:
Click to expand...

I suspect Director will be safe, it's still the de-facto choice for authoring of CD-ROM's, Enhanced CD-ROM's, DVD-ROM's, Kiosk's and with the exception of iShell, there's nothing similar or as capable out there.

Hopefully Adobe will invest in developing it a little more than Macromedia have been doing over the last few years, .swf output would be nice for a start. :D
 
Quark Freehand?

Maybe Quark will eventually pick up some of the Macromedia apps that Adobe will shed--if Adobe will let them purchase them.

I've never been terribly fond of Adobe, but now I feel hate for them.

I don't know how the FTC will approve this acquisition. There will pretty much be only one software company offering design software. How is this good for the consumer?

-F Brown
 
Now I have to rethink.. again

If FW wont be around anymore theres little point in investing in it now. Was just about to buy new licences for a just started company, but if there will be no new versions of it, then.. :(

Supposed to send a spec to finance today, which until now felt close to perfect.
Perhaps I shoud take it anyway.. how far away would a new version of photoshop w. FW features be? CS2 was just released so cant see it being that soon.

as if i didnt have anxiety over decisions before
inputs are very welcome.. :)
 
Fireworks going away doesn't bother me.

Freehand going away doesn't either.

Adobe, please leave Macromedia's Web tools alone.

Thank you.
 
Some historical context...

I'm probably revealing my age here but... when Adobe purchased Aldus, they acquired with it:

- Pagemaker
- Freehand

For antitrust reasons, they were not allowed to own both Illustrator and Freehand, so to get government approval for the purchase they agreed to sell Freehand (i.e. they kept their own in favour of the 3rd party product).

They decided to keep Pagemaker, alongside Framemaker, even though there was some crossover between the two products. This was later resolved when they brought out InDesign, replacing both.

For what it's worth, I'd bet that Adobe sells Dreamweaver & Fireworks - perhaps to Apple. Their interest in Macromedia is entirely down to Flash - that's Macromedia's crown jewels.

Don't get me wrong, Dreamweaver is a great app, and I recognise it's more popular than GoLive, but Adobe's only real interest in Macromedia is Flash. Dreamweaver is extremely valuable - but more valuable to Adobe in its sale price, I think.
 
OMFG - I live and die with Dreamweaver, if it goes, things will be VERY Pete Tong.

This could be great for the consumer, but I think it is far more likely to have a negative impact...

Regards

Tony
 
Blue Velvet said:
This is a serious move by Adobe to monopolise the creative's workspace. I'm surprised that no regulatory eyebrows are being raised.
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly. Damn.

For those considering an Apple buyout of Adobe...
I don't know much about those sort of financial matters. But here's a little breakdown:

Adobe Systems Incorporated

Stock: $60.66
Sales: $1.67 bil
Profits: $.45 bil
Assets: $1.96 bil
Market Value: $15.08 bil
Employees: 3,142
Forbes 2000 Ranking: 1,125

Apple Computer, Inc.

Stock: $35.35
Sales: $9.76 bil
Profits: $.51 bil
Assets: $9.36 bil
Market Value: $36.66 bil
Employees: 11,695
Forbes 2000 Ranking: 442

I was going to post the stats for Microsoft, too, but it's just easier to take Apple and multiply everything by seven (except for profits which are X 20 or so). :(

Perhaps some economist-types can translate that info into layman's terms.

Squire
 
nesbitt_a said:
I really hope Adobe dosen't phase out Dreamweaver, Fireworks etc in favour of its own solutions GoLive and Photoshop.
Click to expand...

You can't please everyone, it seems. I for one hope GoLive survives (it used to be GoLive CyberStudio, once upon a time), as I always considered Dreamweaver to be clunky and counter-productive. Perhaps, since they cannot please everyone, Adobe should scrap GoLive AND Dreamweaver then release something entirely different.
 
I'd have thought the main change would be elevated prices. A monopoly also tends to lead to development complacency, as there's nothing to compete with and no reason to innovate.
 
Blue Velvet said:
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.
Click to expand...

There is always COREL. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!
*Gets off floor clutching sides*

:rolleyes:
 
Please keep dreamweaver

I am a bit nervous. I really hope Adobe scrapes GoLive in favor of Dreamweaver.

At least with these two competing programs, it looks like the Microsoft tactic won again—if you can't beat them, buy them! :D
 
More monopolisation, that's pretty sad imo... why can't they just all be friends, erh, I mean competitors... Two good companies merging means less freedom of choice and possibly even less development. Adobe will sit heavily on the entire market for design-apps. Everything exept 3D modelling.

Been wanting to learn dreamweaver and flash for a while, at least now I've got a reason for not getting around to it the next couple of months either. Wonder how fast they'll start to kill apps... or whatever their plans are.

A
 
Java said:
I am a bit nervous. I really hope Adobe scrapes GoLive in favor of Dreamweaver.

At least with these two competing programs, it looks like the Macromedia tactic won again—if you can't beat them, buy them! :D
Click to expand...

...or rather - if you can't beat them, get bought by them. Shame the focus is on beating each other, rather than producing quality. Otoh - "Macrobe" will still have all it takes to make kickass products. Except competition. It has put itself in the same situation as Microsoft - hope they'll be better at handling it.

A
 
Monopolies are good?

:confused:
I don't know if this is good news or not. Monopolies and lack of competition is never a good thing. However, Macromedia killed my beloved Fontographer years ago and i like so many others always hated Freehand (use to like it over Illustrator but that was when Aldus made it). Fireworks vs Photoshop? Are you on crack? Apple buying Adobe? That would be the worst news of all... a "Microsoft" for the 21st century. Boo! ;) Dreamweaver/Flash/Director hopefully come out safe.
 
iGav said:
I suspect Director will be safe, it's still the de-facto choice for authoring of CD-ROM's, Enhanced CD-ROM's, DVD-ROM's, Kiosk's and with the exception of iShell, there's nothing similar or as capable out there.

Hopefully Adobe will invest in developing it a little more than Macromedia have been doing over the last few years, .swf output would be nice for a start. :D
Click to expand...

iGav, I hope you're right I really do hope you're right!

I'm shuddering at the thought of what Adobe may end-up doing; just take a look at Encore DVD on Windows and how they ballsed-up the remains of Sonic [Reel?] and then take a look at the Mac route of the same product aka DVD SP!

And they [Adobe] have a blatant disregard to installed user bases as well; LiveMotion... here today and then, like Kaiser Sosay... GONE!! [I never did actually use it as a development environment, so I can't really comment too much].

Oh boy, oh boy it's could be good, but it could also be bad, VERY BAD!!
 
WOW!!!

Adobe is no joke. They've got the jugular now.

Finally Flash will work with Illustrator! We can dump Freehand and SVG (who used this, anyhow)

I just pray that they don't mess with Dreamweaver. GoLive is a complete disaster.

...and Fireworks is far better than Photoshop for certain things. It would be nice to see the two merge instead of Adobe scrapping Fireworks
 
narco said:
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.
Click to expand...

Believe me, I have no love for Freehand... but the Associated Press still uses it to construct graphics. Example: Weather maps... sports graphs. As a matter of fact, they just changed their requirements so that you have to use fh9. Perhaps they will switch to illustrator.

I'll be angry though if Adobe kills DW. I enjoy the work flow much better then I do GoLive.
 
Thataboy said:
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.
Click to expand...

That's absurd. Apple is a gnat on Microsoft's backside, but it's a gnat that keeps them from appearing to have a monopoly. Apple is much more valuable to Microsoft alive than dead.

Besides, who would they copy with Apple dead?
 
Plain and simple, not good news...

Why doesn't one company just by all the companies that produce creative intelligent software, and sqaush them into one big production to pump out unusable crap? Who knows what will become of some of MM's products? I shudder to thinks about it.

I don't know about all of you, but this just about reaks of big fat heavy corporate business theives, seeking yet another way to line their golden pockets, to go home and virtually roll around in piles of cash.

So, who took a peek at the Microsoft business plan then?
 
This is bad. Apple should have been on the ball and bought Macromedia a long time ago, then they could have made a Photoshop killer by combining Fireworks and iPhoto and extended the whole webkit idea with Dreamweaver to make a kick-ass web-design program. Not to mention the power they'd have from controlling Flash and possibly discontinuing the Windows version.

Apple is now at Adobe's mercy and Adobe know it. Even making this announcement the day after Apple's announcements at NAB is a slap in the face and stealing Apple's thunder.
 
Noooooooooooooooo....

..noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!

For me, this is grave news. I'm a web dev guy - I do a ton of programming and a *some* design. I don't use Photoshop because it's way over my head... I use Fireworks - it's quick, easy, and optimized for web graphics.

Poor Fireworks... (snif)...

Now, Adobe would be providing a great service if they would ressurect HomeSite and bring it to the Mac!!!
 
This really really is unexpected and I too "nearly fell off my seat". These two companies both make great software.

Please don't get rid of Dreamweaver... fireworks can go though :p ... dreamweaver is much better than GoLive tho IMO.
 
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