Adobe Systems Inc. has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Macromedia Inc. for US$3.4 billion in stock, the company said Monday.
Source: MacCentral
And then there was one....
This is a bombshell, and is not good. Not good at all. Competition fuels creativity. Look what Adobe has forced Quark to do. If InDesign was never released, we might not be seeing Quark 6.5, much less Quark 5.0 at this point. Think of how many years Quark 3.3 and 4.0 were out. With no competition, development gets stagnant, and that is not good for the customers.
The same could be said about a lot of companies. Why the NFL wanted only one license holder is beyond me, but now we only get NFL games from EA. That is just great (sarcasm). A different market for sure, but EA holds a monopoly akin to what Adobe now has.
It looks like the only real winners here are InDesign and Director. The rest of the product lines on both the Adobe side and the Macromedia side will probably see some kind of integration. Will Flash and Flash Paper get integrated into PDF? Won't that be a juggernaut.
The MacCentral article seems to focus on a looming fight between Adobe and Microsoft over portable documents. For some reason, I do not think that even Microsoft could cut into Adobe's PDF stronghold at this point. Adding Flash surely doesn't hurt it, though.
My main concern here, being a web developer, is what is going to happen to Dreamweaver and Fireworks. Adobe has a knack for "Adobifying" applications they buy. And it usually turns out bad. I actually liked GoLive back when it was GoLive Cyber Studio. I fear they are going to merge GoLive and Dreamweaver and give it a GoLive feel. Merging the two applications would be fine to me; I would feel a lot better if they would retain the Dreamweaver UI, though.
With Dreamweaver taking a reportedly 1/3 market share in web development, and Microsoft being number two in that arena with FrontPage, it is obvious what Adobe wants to do. Dreamweaver might have been a secondary reason for the buyout, but Flash was most certainly the main reason.
.jpg?t=20120527181101)
Article comments
1 - Sal
This is a touchy subject, there will be big losers here, people that have become masters of an Adobe or Macromedia program, putting years and years into them and to know that, in the very near future, they may have to start from scratch. I may be one of them. I love the adobish visual side of Golive(that I've been using since it was Cyberstudio) and Illustrator too. I would not like to have to relearn the basics. I don't believe Adobe will mess with Photoshop and maybe not even Illustrator. I pray for our future and the Adobe interface designers/programmers, they have their hands full. I'd like them to keep in mind that Adobe bought Macromedia, not the other way around. I would be a winner and in heaven if I got the stablility and robust features of DW with the more visual Adobish Golive feel. Then again, maybe we'll get something in the middle. Ahh, this is touchy!
2 - Ken Edwards
To be quite honest, I hope GoLive gets the axe. I am strongly in the Dreamweaver camp. I used to like CyberStudio back when it was owned by GoLive, but since Adobe bought it, it has turned for the worse.
What is likely to happen however is that Adobe will offer both products, DW for Pro and GoLive for Consumer or "Prosumer."
3 - TheShadow
Well ... it's true that adobe buy macromedia ! however i don't think they r stupid enough to Destory DW History since it's ranked as #1 in Web Development Application
mostly they will leave it as it is and add the extra features that GoLive had ! this way they would keep DW as Ranked #1 Prodect but with More Tools and Options
4 - cybercow
Well... now is 2006 and i still use DW8 because f... rules not to mention FW8 that is the best web design tool ewer maked, flash 8 it`s out of comment, this trio will work on my desk with "macromedia in my heart" for years...
Adobe is sticky and anoying, only that adobe maked good is pdf and photoshop...
GoLive is for people that love to talk and must have "shiny" software on their desk`s that newer use, DW is for people that love to work and need high developing power...
and for the end... look at www.adobe.com, what they did of macromedia`s site, where are good known tutorials, examples... half of the site is not functioning, this is a disaster...
5 - Shehab El-Kadi
I cannot see the link or the similarity between some of Macromedia products and Adobe... freehand is a different software than illustrator, sure you can use Freehand to produce stunning illustrations, but any profissional will tell you that you need 10 times the effort to make sure that it prints good, and the color engine and proofing is really hard with FreeHand. I guess what made the value of FreeHand in vector graphics go up, is the smooth co-operation with Quark and the fact that it has multi page function(why, I don't know? since it does not messure up to any layout software). it was always like this, Adobe has a very steady and stable print oriented software, and Macromedia has made the big step and invested in web development.
You were always able to messure this by user transaction (profissional users), you can always easly move from freehand to illustrator, and from golive to dreamweaver.
why did adobe buy macromedia, is beyond my understanding, it is complementry software like freeHand what made illustrator take the big step from v8 to v10. Adobe will always need a Macromedia, a corel,...etc. to advance, and while big corporates create another brands and options to keep competetion even withen its own stucture, Adobe just killed it. I hope that it is thier plan to sell it to another small firm, and not just try to erase it. and I hope that the people of macromedia is just planning to invest in another form of flash and dreamweaver, and not try to invest in oil.
it is all going to affect the two industries, Print and web.