UK watchdog slams the brakes on Adobe’s $20 billion bid for Figma

Great move.

Adobe already has a product identical to Figma called XD, it would be entirely ridiculous to let them further monopolize the digital design space buying the most popular competitor

Figma balls, that is

Fuck Adobe

I would like to be optimistic but if they are ready to spend 20 billions in the acquisition the might as well spare 1-2 extra billions to bribe the proper people.

I thought this was already done? The Figma post sounded pretty final. I was pretty sad to read it but this news gives me some hope.

Not that Adobe doesn’t make good stuff, but I can’t imagine Figma thriving in the same way it has when Adobe just wants it to pull more $50/mo cloud subscriptions.

If this doesn't get stopped, then these rules are pointless. But I guess the same could be said for other recent acquisitions that did go through fine with only minor tweaks.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The CMA announced its findings on Tuesday, saying that if the deal goes ahead in its current form, it would eliminate competition in the software markets for product design, image editing, and illustration.

The CMA says that possible remedies it’s considering include either prohibiting the merger entirely or the divestiture of “overlapping operations” in each market where the deal could cause a substantial lessening of competition (SLC) — in other words, where removing Adobe’s rivals leaves consumers with fewer options.

But even if Adobe were willing, separating two of its most popular apps from its Creative Cloud service (which reached almost 30 million paid subscribers last year) is no easy feat.

“The digital design sector is worth nearly £60 billion to the UK – representing 2.7% of the national economy – and employs over 850,000 people in highly skilled work,” said Margot Daly, chair of the independent group conducting the CMA’s investigation.

“The software this sector uses is pivotal to its success, so the CMA has from the outset been very focused on ensuring this merger doesn’t adversely affect such an important part of the UK economy.”

The findings of this investigation aren’t final — this is a provisional verdict that just informs Adobe and Figma of the precise issues preventing the deal from being approved.

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Cool full steam ahead for merging after the 19th then.