Version: 2008

December 2, 2005 10:04 AM PST

Adobe's Macromedia takeover clears final hurdle

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Adobe Systems' multibillion-dollar takeover of rival software developer Macromedia has received regulatory clearance and is expected to be completed Saturday.

Adobe announced late Thursday that it and Macromedia have either received or been notified they will receive all regulatory clearances necessary to complete the acquisition, which will cost Adobe $3.4 billion.

This follows an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department, which requested additional information on both companies' Web-authoring, design and vector graphics illustration products.

Adobe also said it would discuss the combined company's fiscal 2006 outlook on Dec. 15.

The takeover was announced in April, when Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen promised to yield cost savings. This sparked speculation that some software applications could be axed once it was completed.

In the graphics market, Adobe's Photoshop and Illustrator are the market leaders ahead of Macromedia's competing Fireworks and Freehand. In Web design, Macromedia has the established DreamWeaver against Adobe's more recent GoLive product.

Graeme Wearden of ZDNet UK reported from London.

See more CNET content tagged:
Macromedia Inc., takeover, Adobe Systems Inc.

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Flash Sucks
by ndrtek_rob December 2, 2005 11:13 AM PST
God Bless Adobe
Reply to this comment
Well...
by System Tyrant December 2, 2005 11:19 AM PST
I like Photoshop and Indesign. Pretty much everything else sucks at Adobe including the CEO (who has to be the ugliest person alive). Well, I do like PDF's.

As far as flash sucking... that's your opinion and I would be willing to bet not one shared by the majority.
View reply
It the UI that sucks most
by originalbitman December 2, 2005 12:08 PM PST
Macromedia can learn a lot about good consistent UI from Adobe.
Ignorance is bliss
by ob1coyote December 5, 2005 9:12 AM PST
I am a great fan of Adobeand Macromedia. I know that Adobe can improve many of the Macromedia products, I just hope they don't axe half of them.

Flash Sucks? Well consider the source.
You obviously don't use Flash...
by Stan Johnson December 5, 2005 9:43 AM PST
If you did you would see that Flash is possibly the main reason Adobe is buying Macromedia. Adobe was using Flash on its own website before this deal was finalized. Flash is great!
Just about in time....
by Earl Benser December 2, 2005 12:10 PM PST
.... I've eliminated all Adobe software except PageMaker 6.5. And
maybe I will keep my copy of Dreamweaver. But other than those
two, no more Adobe products for me. After all, I am not one of
those highly qualified professionals that Adobe cares about. I am
with the rest of the world that Adobe doesn't care about. And I sort
of like it that way.
Reply to this comment
no more Adobe
by Thunder Johny June 19, 2007 12:24 PM PDT
http://www.analogstereo.com/saturn_vue_owners_manual.htm
Just when I was falling in love
by aabcdefghij987654321 December 2, 2005 12:26 PM PST
Just when I was falling in love with everything Macroemdia has to offer - they go and let Adobe in. All I can say is they better not touch Coldfusion. I use Macromedia Homesite - so if they make that program a memory sucker - I guess I can always revert back to notepad...
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The death of Fireworks and Freehand?
by SqlserverCode December 2, 2005 12:43 PM PST
The death of Fireworks and Freehand?
I personally like Fireworks, makes things a little easier for someone who is not a designer compared to photoshop. I doubt that they will keep both. Look what happened to ColdFusion Studio and Kawa after Macromedia took over Allaire back in 2001

http://otherthingsnow.blogspot.com/
Reply to this comment
KEEP Fireworks!
by webdev511 December 4, 2005 11:30 AM PST
You wouldn't till a suburban backyard garden with a full size farm tracktor, would you?

Same goes for Photoshop. It's overpriced overkill for web graphics. I'm never going to retouch photos for print, and would likely use less than 5% of what photoshop can do. Of course Adobe would put out a lower priced version, but conveniently remove some of the features I require. Huh, funny that.
Very Sad
by ChasmoeBrown December 2, 2005 1:45 PM PST
Adobe's gonna screw it up. It's not an anti-Adobe or pro-
Macromedia thing. It's just what seems to happens every time.
What Adobe doesn't jettison they will cannabalize - imagine
GoLive with DreamWeaver features - new and "improved". All
because it's business - if you can't beat 'em, buy 'em - and so
the technical decisions will be made from a business standpoint.

Maybe a little hope, though, if the Macromedia people that are
canned would band together and start over. If they do, using
the lessons learned of course, it could be a very good thing.

(Looks like I'll be stuck at HomeSite 5.5 for a very long time.)
Reply to this comment
Boooo!
by Bob_Barker December 2, 2005 3:00 PM PST
h8 at Adobe. Now the Macromedia line is going to turn into bloat-ware like everything Adobe puts out.
Reply to this comment
Look at History, this is a good move
by golfben86 December 2, 2005 3:59 PM PST
Adobe has a history of acquiring smaller software companies
and streamlining their ambitious software into multifaceted
tools which communicate with the rest of Adobe's programs
easily. Audition, Premeiere, and InDesign all originated at places
other than Adobe, and through the years Adobe has brought
these programs to life in the marketplace by offering a
recognizeable user interface and compatability with industry
leading Adobe tools. Many of you seem to think that the
acquision of Macromedia will lead to the end of Dreamweaver; I
disagree, Adobe is smart and knows that the Dreamweaver name
holds more clout in the web devloping community and will likely
fuse the extra features of GoLive into the next version of Adobe
Dreamweaver.
Reply to this comment
And I'll never know....
by Earl Benser December 2, 2005 5:37 PM PST
... because Adobe has made it clear that it doesn't want me as a
customer. Nor does it want any other non-professionals as
customers. So be it.
Not the end of Dreamweaver.
by System Tyrant December 4, 2005 10:09 PM PST
Actually I don't think anybody really thinks it's the end of Dreamweaver. More like we think it's the end of a quality dreamweaver.

Don't get me wrong I like Photoshop and InDesign, but I just would prefer Adobe to leave Macromedia alone. I don't care that Adobe bought Macromedia, but I would prefer Dreamweaver, Flash, and Fireworks to maintain their look and feel. I don't want Dreamweaver to look like Photoshop. Dreamweaver has a very fluid design and it works.

I don't know if this transistion will be bad or not, but I would prefer not to find out.
View reply
Not to sure about this one
by VI Joker December 5, 2005 6:13 AM PST
This is definately one of those mergers that you have wait till the dust settle before you think of what changes will happen. I agree with the notion that it would be foolhardy for Adobe to drop either Fireworks or Dreamweaver. They have a lot of developer recognition and acceptance, but business sometimes wins over technology so time will tell how it plays out. More than likely Dreamweaver and Fireworks will be offered as scaled down versions of Pagemaker and Photoshop. As long as they do not do much to Dreamweaver and Fireworks I think all will go well.
View reply
Very little needs to change
by webdev511 December 4, 2005 11:38 AM PST
Yes, there will be the requsite merge of hr/finance/it/marketing etc, but that happens with every merger.

If the new management is smart, they will change VERY little when it comes to product lines. Yes, there's overlap with Illistrator/Freehand, Dreamweaver/GoLive, and some would say Photoshop/Fireworks (I disagree on that one). Some products will benefit from integration, others will get new features to ignore.

This is a good move for Adobe, but I really don't think Macromedia needed to do this. Quarter after Quarter profits post bubble and high endorsement rate of the Flash/Breeze platform were more than enough to keep me happy as a stockholder. Adobe is far less stable with thier income streams.

Time will tell if it was a good move, or bad.
Reply to this comment
That's the Most Dumb Thing I've read in a While
by mcthingy2 December 6, 2005 10:16 AM PST
Adobe's just had two record years of profit and their stock is up
3 fold in the last three years. Adobe's margins are much higher
than Macromedia's (almost double). Look up their balance
sheets and compare and contrast before you give us your
"analysis".
I can't wait
by Dachi April 24, 2008 8:31 PM PDT
I can't wait till flash player runs on system startup and starts nagging me to download updates everytime I surf to a site using it. Outside of photoshop, Macromedia's products just seem to be a more professional grade.

This is sad.
Reply to this comment
Yeah this sucks.
by System Tyrant December 2, 2005 11:14 AM PST
You know if Adobe would leave Macromedia alone and let it continue in it's current form that would be great. But, I think in time Adobe will shut down and fire most of the employees at Macromedia and turn dreamweaver and flash into crap like some of Adobe's other products. Before long Dreamweaver, Flash, and Fireworks will looke like Photoshop and work like GoLive.

Fortunatly for all of us their are other companies ready to fill the void left when Macromedia becomes apart of Adobe. They may not be as good as Macromedia's stuff, but at least they will work.
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