Adobe buys Macromedia
 

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq: ADBE) today announced a definitive agreement to acquire Macromedia (Nasdaq: MACR) in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $3.4 billion.

http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/invr...acromedia.html

Now - there should be no problemsanymore in Flash-support in AE, or PDF-import in Dreamweaver.

Gobble Gobble

Kind of makes me sad. I realize there is a logical process to consolidation but I really wanted both companies' competition to keep the product lines honest. Adobe had to deal with Flash because SVG was never going to cut it and Flash became a standard so quickly.

Maybe now Flash's vector tools are going to be worth something. I've always had to go from Adobe Illustrator to Flash to avoid working with Flash's crap vector creation.

I'm sure it also removes any patent blockage in their development.

To make things even more logical, Apple should buy Adobe now.

Well, what does this mean for videos exactly? Better titles/animation? Or is this simply another product opportunity for some other software to be included in the Adobe Collections?

I think it certainly has some implications for on-line video. Flash video, which has gotten much better recently, has some potential to make on-line video much easier to do in some applications.

I'm absolutely blown away by this announcement. It's got our whole office in a tizzy right now. I can't think of any concerns over this, since we don't use any Macromedia products, but it's just such huge news that it's got us freaked out. LOL!

I've always considered these two companies to be very similar. They both got their start in the Mac world, and they both provide a unique style of thinking in their software, and they both essentially have their niche for their similar product offerings - one mostly in print and the other mostly in interactive/online. Of course with all the merging that's been happening between traditional and online design and development in the past few years, it makes perfect sense that these two companies merge.

It's more a sign of our times than of anything else.

It has me a little freaked out as well. Adobe has some good tools (Photoshop and Illustrator) but Macromedia has the job of screwing up a good application down to science (Flash changes drastically with every new version) They both have strong points to their products but neither has really perfected either (although Adobe does seem to do a better job). It's going to be interesting to see what happens!

I think Flash has consistently been getting better with every version. Plus it's a hard comparison, because Flash is a developer tool that is beholden to certain global standards, whereas something like Photoshop, well, you're not beholden to anything. You make an image and it's done. Hopefully that makes sense.