ADOBE TO ACQUIRE MACROMEDIA

[Mr. Anderson]

..noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!

That's actually the first word out of my mouth when I saw the headline. Bleh....

I'm hoping that there might be better integration of Flash, Photoshop and Illustrator and Golive now. But there might be a long wait before its totally polished.

Adobe has to realize that there is a huge following for the redundant Macromedia apps. I'll be very curious to see how they handle this all.

D

 

[blueBomber]

I'm not quite sure how to take this news. For the most part, it should be beneficial for people like myself (print/web design), it could put an end to alot of program jumping... I'm kinda glad I just bought Studio MX 2004 pro with my new PM; it may very well be the last "pure" version of Macromedia's apps.

 

[devman]

The thought of Microsoft buying this new enlarged Adobe is positively frightening.

 

[Object-X]

Stunned

Wow. It boggles the mind. What are they going to do with the product lines? Merge them? At this point Dreamweaver is way better than GoLive, but a new GoLive is coming out next month. And I am not sure about fireworks, but since Image Ready is packaged with Photoshop it will probably go too. Freehand is dead. And Flash is staying.

What about Flex? Will they port it to the Mac I wonder? It's a cool technology, even if it is over priced. It certainly offers an alternative to Microsoft's XAML. Let's hope they forgot about that Final Cut Pro thing.

 

[Yvan256]

Wow. This is huge. I wonder what implications this might have for the mac platform...

That, my friends, is the biggest question of all. It's also very strange that this is announced one day after the release of Final Cut Studio, if you ask me.

Edit: "Even making this announcement the day after Apple's announcements at NAB is a slap in the face and stealing Apple's thunder."

Yep, that's probably the biggest reason to announce their merging today. To eliminate/water down Final Cut Studio from the headlines...

If Adomedia (hehe) stops releasing Photoshop and Illustrator (and other necessary products I'm not aware of) for the Mac, this could have serious repercussions (especially for the print market, who's already got to worry about stuff other than viruses and computers freezing, etc - would be a mess if they had to switch to Windows).

 

[Object-X]

Why not Apple?

The thought of Microsoft buying this new enlarged Adobe is positively frightening.

What makes you think Apple wouldn't buy Adobe themselves? I think with all that cash they have in the bank it would make sense for them to do that if Microsoft were seriously considering it. Though Apple could write a Photoshop like app, trying to get the millions of Photoshop users to switch would be near impossible.

 

[k28]

Dreamweaver + GoLive

Adobe DreamLive CX 2005 (maybe 2006) !!!!!!

 

[nagromme]

Adobe has one great product I depend on - Photoshop.

Macromedia has a bunch!

Director
Dreamweaver
Flash
Contribute
Freehand
and to a lesser extent, Fireworks

And now that Director on Mac lets you make Windows software, my biggest complaint about their pricing is gone too!

This makes me nervous, but time will tell. I wouldn't mind some Adobe/MM bundle upgrade pricing But I doubt they'd choose the bundle combinations I'd want.

As for supporting the Mac, both companies have been very good about that, but of the two Adobe seems to have been better--so that particular issue doesn't worry me. (Adobe has dropped some apps for Mac--like Premiere--because the Mac already HAD a better alternative.)

In the end, I'd still really prefer more competition and less consolidation. My industry just fell under the control of a single company today

 

[Object-X]

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?

But Microsoft can't even copy anything anymore! Longhorn wont be out for over a year and a half, and it still won't have everything Tiger offers! We'll be looking at Cheetah or whatever by then.

(Off topic) What is the next big cat?

 

[cberry]

Just a bad idea - a step back for the people who use either company's tools

Competition makes products better, and prices reasonable. Now there is no competition, so the DW/Golive space will probably stagnate. GoLive is a mediocre product, but considering Adobe is on top here, will probably be the absorber, with the funky, but truly superior DW being the absorbee.

Intergration between PS and DW/FW was a small problem, but acceptable considering they were competing products. As competitors, they interoperated well - thanks to standards!

Now only one company effectively exists in the space. It will compromise standards.

Not to mention price.

Anybody know of a likely candidate firm to compete against this juggernaut?

 

[immac]

I'm getting the feeling that lines are being drawn in the sand. I don't know if this is a defensive move or an offensive by Adobe. Is Apple gonna be content with the HD market and leave pro print and web for Adobe or are we gonna see a lot more strategic R&D partnering ala Sony/Apple. Does it pay for Apple to try to compete with Photoshop/ Illustrator? I don't think so.... I think Apple is smart enough to go after the easy kills.
It won't be good if Adobe decides to cut back resources for optimizing their apps for Apples processor roadmap and concentrates on PC. In which cases Apple may say screw it we'll roll our own.

Hmmm.


Oh, forgot about gaming, Apple/ATI

 

[PretendPCuser]

Why do you keep one name and not the other?

Well, Adobe can take the good from Fireworks, roll it into ImageReady and keep the name ImageReady. They don't have to keep one and ditch everything from the other program. Ditto for DW and GoLive. GoLive used to be the dominate player before MM launched DW and before it was bought by Adobe. So again, what keeps Adobe from taking the better features of DW roll them into GL and poof! GL CS3!!

Can't say i'm all that happy about it, but as was mentioned, now if i all i have to do is buy one creative suite, because, well, there isn't anything else, then....

Who's to say that Apple won't enter this space, if Adobe decides that "not that many people used Dreamweaver for Mac anyway" same goes for Flash. That'd be a weird thing that could turn the publishing world on it's end. Or if Apple bought Quark. Ahhh, possibilities...

 

[dongmin]

That, my friends, is the biggest question of all. It's also very strange that this is announced one day after the release of Final Cut Studio, if you ask me.

If Adomedia (hehe) stops releasing Photoshop and Illustrator (and other necessary products I'm not aware of) for the Mac, this could have serious repercussions (especially for the print market, who's already got to worry about stuff other than viruses and computers freezing, etc - would be a mess if they had to switch to Windows).

Not likely to happen anytime soon. Macs still rule the DTP world. Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign are major cash cows for Adobe. I read somewhere that Adobe still makes something like 50% of their revenues from Mac users.

For me, the bigger concern is for apps like Dreamweaver and Flash, which aren't as dominated by Mac users. Macromedia has always been super Mac-friendly. Adobe seems much more threatened by Apple. I fear for these non-DTP apps.

 

[irmongoose]

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.

What are you blabbering about? Apple doesn't want or need to make a rival product to Photoshop. Why would they do that? The only reason Apple does stuff in-house is to fill in the areas that 3rd party companies either don't have products for or the products that do exist are second-rate. How will Apple benefit by trying to dump the de facto standard?

Discontinue the Windows version of Flash!?? Why do you think Flash is such an important element in the web world? Because everybody uses it. Some version of Flash Player is installed in 98% of all computers hooked up to the net. Discontinuing the Windows version will do nothing but cripple Flash itself, as a rival product will arise for Windows and that will take over as the new standard.

Adobe is not slapping Apple in the face. Do you seriously think that the corporate bunch at Adobe tried to time their announcement just to "steal Apple's thunder"? Do you think they have some silly plot of trying to ruin Apple's sales? What do you think that will do to Adobe's sales? Some 25% of Adobe's sales are from Mac users, right? Think about it... please.




irmongoose

 

[virividox]

that's a great move for adobe...as long as they dont start churning out crap then im fine with it

 

[ACED]

I'm wondering about how much Adobe stock Microsoft and Apple, respectively own?

If that means respectively positioned/inclined board members on the Adobe board, maybe a bidding war will develop over control of direction of Adobe between Microsoft and Apple ... and we all know who would win that one.

Plus, with Corel and Apple having competitive products, maybe anti-trust isn't an issue ... interesting times.

 

[Westside guy]

And then there was one...

 

[littlejim]

I'm wondering about how much Adobe stock Microsoft and Apple, respectively own?

If that means respectively positioned/inclined board members on the Adobe board, maybe a bidding war will develop over control of direction of Adobe between Microsoft and Apple ... and we all know who would win that one.

Plus, with Corel and Apple having competitive products, maybe anti-trust isn't an issue ... interesting times.

According to MacWorld UK, Apple sold all their stake in Adobe back in 1989 ... for $79 Million.

Doh!

 

[devman]

What makes you think Apple wouldn't buy Adobe themselves? I think with all that cash they have in the bank it would make sense for them to do that if Microsoft were seriously considering it. Though Apple could write a Photoshop like app, trying to get the millions of Photoshop users to switch would be near impossible.

*sigh* I knew I should have added a paragraph full of qualifications...

I never said Apple wouldn't buy Adobe. I never said Apple would buy Adobe. I never said Microsoft wouldn't buy Adobe. I never said Microsft would buy Adobe. All I said was that the thought of Microsoft buying Adobe is frightening.

 

[TheInevitable]

Everyone here seems to think that this is the end of technology, like Adobe is going to kill everything that Macromedia has except Flash. I'm quite sure that for $3+billion, Adobe will try to milk every bit of technology they get out of Macromedia. I'd imagine that rather than nix DW or GL, they will combine them both and make one new editor, or add an Elements level version. I look forward to being able to have better Illustrator/Flash compatability. I'm trying to be excited for what this could mean for software development. There is so much potential.

Also, its not a monopoly. Apple and Corel have creative app as well. Plus, I bet this will create a vacuum that will get filled in a very short time.

 

[Frisco]

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

Microsoft can already kill off Apple any day by getting rid of Office for Mac, but as someone already mentioned Microsoft needs Apple around for fear of antitrust laws.

My fear would be Microsoft buying Adobe and then making all the DTP apps suck on the Mac! That would suck--MS doesn't have a creative bone in its body.

 

[SlowX]

wonder what the new name will be...

microsoft mini?
:{

 

[RocksInMySocks]

This is solely my opinion... but it comes from someone who has managed advertising and creative departments, taught college graphic design, made a living as a freelance illustrator, and spent 15 years in the industry:

Freehand is and will always be superior to Illustrator.

Ask anyone who isn't a casual user and who actually has to live by these apps.

Freehand is vastly more intuitive.

Again, this is just my opinion.

 

[sirjimithy1]

Dreamweaver is way better than GoLive, but GoLive has a couple useful features missing from DW. I only hope Adobe realizes that web development needs to be based more around source code, since that's really what drives everything. WYSIWYG has gotten way out of hand.

 

[SPUY767]

Dreamweaver is way better than GoLive, but GoLive has a couple useful features missing from DW. I only hope Adobe realizes that web development needs to be based more around source code, since that's really what drives everything. WYSIWYG has gotten way out of hand.

Going to have to agree there, DW really spanks GL. And wisywig is practically dead, save for the newbs who don't use CSS. All The wisywig bit i good for anymore is making HTML docs that reference the CSS, then I just code the CSS by hand. GoLive is weak in the code department. So weak so, that when I HAD to use it, and Not DW, I just coded the crap in BBedit.

Microsoft won't buy adobe, mainly adobe won't sell. Adobe has too much money, and they are making too much for MS to buy them. Killing MS Office on the mac wouldn't do a whole lot. There are enough apps out there, not to mentions PPC distributions of OpenOffice that look just like MS office w/o maybe 10% of the crap you never use. Microsoft at one point hadn't really updated Office mac in nearly 7 years. The mac was still hanging in there.

What else can I complain about??? Oh, FCP 5 is gonna SMOKE, but that's off topic, I'm gonna burn one tonight in celebration of its release. Anyway, peace out.