There goes the competition
Adobe Systems said Monday it had agreed to buy Macromedia for about $3.4 billion in stock, in order to extend its lead in the market for creating and distributing digital documents.
Adobe set to buy Macromedia! Is it April fools again? Well I did not see this coming.
<update>
Well it seems I was not the only one caught off guard by this. By now many others have keyed in their opinions. A good one out there is at mezzoblue.
I am not sure if I agree with the assumptions many are making about the lack of competition due to Adobe’s domination in print and Macromedia’s hold on the digital side. True each company is strongest at different things, but that their product lines overlap gives me reason to doubt the spin. The slight bit of competition these two companies gave each other gave us better tools and kept the market open to innovation. Remember when Quark had a stranglehold over print publishing (and to an extent still do)? We were faced with pathetic software, rare updates, and many other issues. Adobe’s InDesign helped push Quark to create a better product. Adobe and Macromedia have a good track record on support and innovation in their products, if this goes through let’s hope this will not change.