« Books Banned on Flights? | Main | Random Rants »

April 18, 2005

Adobe Buys Macromedia, Two Platform Strategy

Adobe acquired Macromedia for $3.4 billion in stock; see Om, Jeff, Rafat, Tim, Reuters, Cnet and NY Times,   

What's interesting about this deal is how the combined company has two web platforms, .pdf and Flash, and neither are web friendly.  Both provide slick presentation, but to the detriment of open hypertext.  If they can integrate as a company, Adobe should be well positioned to compete against Microsoft.  Adobe CEO:

"By combining our powerful development, authoring and collaboration software - along with the complementary functionality of PDF and Flash - Adobe has the opportunity to bring this vision to life with an industry-defining technology platform."

This is also the first time a company with a significant portion of their employees blogging has been acquired. So far, Mike Chambers is the only one to post, acknowledging regulatory hurdle of overlapping product lines and he is excited at the prospect of having more resources behind Flash.  Will be interesting to see what Marc has to say.

UPDATE: Kevin Lynch, Jason Kottke's roundup and Marc Canter wants the name back.

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341cd8a453ef00d8342387d953ef

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Adobe Buys Macromedia, Two Platform Strategy:

» Macromedia and Adobe from pc4media
The big news today is that Adobe is buying Marcromedia. About the only thing that I have to add to the conversation is that you can create your own FREE pdf's using this online tool. [Read More]

» Macrodobia from netmeme
I'm a little baffled by today's acquisition news: Adobe to buy Macromedia for $3.4 billion Ross astutely points out -... [Read More]

» Adobe to buy macromedia from Jonathan Boutelle's home on the net
I am dumbfounded! Adobe has a dry press release, Mike Chambers provides some thoughtful commentary, and Mark Cantor spews some bile on the proceedings. Om Malik and Genuine VC cover the business angle. Slashdotters and Metafites have various opinions, ... [Read More]

» Adobe and Macromedia from Johnnie Manzari
Some people have asked my opinion about the $3.4B acquisition of Macromedia by Adobe (humorous translation by John Gruber). I left Adobe at the end of February, so I have more flexibility in what I can say than if I... [Read More]

» Adobe and Macromedia from Johnnie Manzari
Some people have asked my opinion about the $3.4B acquisition of Macromedia by Adobe (humorous translation by John Gruber). I left Adobe at the end of February, so I have more flexibility in what I can say than if I... [Read More]

Comments

Feeds


  • TwitterCounter for @ross

Twitter @Ross

    follow me on Twitter

    Flickr


    • www.flickr.com

    Ligit

    About


    • Ross Mayfield is the Chairman, President & Co-founder of Socialtext, the first wiki company and leading provider of Enterprise 2.0 solutions,
    My Photo

    The 150



    • View Ross Mayfield's profile on LinkedIn

    Blog powered by TypePad
    Member since 08/2003