Read more on Cloud Computing
December 2, 2005 10:04 AM PST
Adobe's Macromedia takeover clears final hurdle
- Related Stories
-
Chizen: Friends, foes and China
November 9, 2005 -
Adobe-Macromedia merger gets govt. clearance
October 14, 2005 -
Adobe posts higher profit on Photoshop demand
September 16, 2005
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.
25 comments
Join the conversation! Add your comment (Log in or register)
As far as flash sucking... that's your opinion and I would be willing to bet not one shared by the majority.
Flash Sucks? Well consider the source.
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.
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
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://otherthingsnow.blogspot.com/" target="_newWindow">http://otherthingsnow.blogspot.com/</a>
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.
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.)
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.
customer. Nor does it want any other non-professionals as
customers. So be it.
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.
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.
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".
This is sad.
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.