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Adobe-Figma deal: “I've never seen a level of investor hatred like this”

46 points by gitgud 4y ago

sirspacey 4y ago
It is hilarious that the big insight here is “there’s got to be some hidden reason why Adobe is taking this defensive move.” It’s only hidden if you haven’t spent any time googling Figma’s founder - who stated from Day 1 that multiplayer design is possible in the cloud and it can’t be file based. Adobe needs Figma to replatform everything they have into that model, because they can’t abandon the tech stack they have. The amount of value this is going to create isn’t a multiple on Figma’s revenue, it’s a multiple on Adobe’s.
- tadfisher 4y ago
  They can't build multiplayer for less than 20 billion USD?
  - llamaLord 4y ago
    What you have to understand is that Figma has some seriously bad-ass tech under the hood which is what makes their product possible. The reality is, nobody other than Figma is actually doing the whole “build a native C++ app and then compile it to WASM” thing that Figma does to the same degree, and it’s exactly the tech adobe needs to bring all their existing products to the browser properly. Adobe isn’t buying Figma, adobe is buying their web rendering engine.
    - pjmlp 4y ago
      Adobe already has Photoshop running on the browser, and many of the WebAssembly improvements were driven by collaboration between them and Google, see Sean Parent talk at CppNorth 2022.
    - andrei_says_ 4y ago
      I think Adobe is also buying Figma’s current, and future, users. Envisioning them as creative cloud subscribers.
scottshea 4y ago
"And so Figma has won the hearts and minds of these designers. They love it. It wasn't that they disliked Adobe." In the small sample size of designers I know, they did not like Adobe
- themoonisachees 4y ago
  I can't think of a single person that i'm aware of that enjoys adobe products. Every single person that i've had the chance to talk to about it says they're basically a monopoly because the competition is so far behind. On second thought maybe Taran the guy who used to be an editor for LTT, he seemed like he actually enjoyed Premiere.
- mrxd 4y ago
  Designers hate Adobe. This acquisition caused a huge collective meltdown on Twitter, and people are saying Figma is dead now. Many people were hoping Figma would kill Adobe.
DoesntMatter22 4y ago
No way this isn't a dumb aquisition. They could have cloned it for a very small fraction of the cost. Would they get adoption? Yes, they are the biggest player in the space. 20 billion for Figma is insane
- akmittal 4y ago
  Facebook could have cloned Whatsapp or Instagram, but thats a risky bet. By buying figma they are getting all the users and their trust for the product. Which is difficult with a new product
  - noobermin 4y ago
    Again they are adobe, literally the biggest brand in the space. Their user base trounces figma's
  - iudqnolq 4y ago
    The argument is this isn't sustainable. They can't keep on buying the next Figma for $20B again and again.
- llamaLord 4y ago
  They tried cloning it… that’s what XD is. Didn’t exactly go well for them.
- dandandan 4y ago
  How long would it have taken? They're buying time
seanhunter 4y ago
They didn’t buy figma for the tech. They didn’t clone figma because even if they succeeded that would leave figma still there. They bought figma so they could kill it and restore their monopoly. Sometimes the most obvious explanation is the truth.
- ehzy 4y ago
  They also tried cloning Figma. It's called Adobe XD.

46 points by gitgud 4y ago

It is hilarious that the big insight here is “there’s got to be some hidden reason why Adobe is taking this defensive move.” It’s only hidden if you haven’t spent any time googling Figma’s founder - who stated from Day 1 that multiplayer design is possible in the cloud and it can’t be file based. Adobe needs Figma to replatform everything they have into that model, because they can’t abandon the tech stack they have. The amount of value this is going to create isn’t a multiple on Figma’s revenue, it’s a multiple on Adobe’s.

tadfisher 4y ago
They can't build multiplayer for less than 20 billion USD?
- llamaLord 4y ago
  What you have to understand is that Figma has some seriously bad-ass tech under the hood which is what makes their product possible. The reality is, nobody other than Figma is actually doing the whole “build a native C++ app and then compile it to WASM” thing that Figma does to the same degree, and it’s exactly the tech adobe needs to bring all their existing products to the browser properly. Adobe isn’t buying Figma, adobe is buying their web rendering engine.
  - pjmlp 4y ago
    Adobe already has Photoshop running on the browser, and many of the WebAssembly improvements were driven by collaboration between them and Google, see Sean Parent talk at CppNorth 2022.
  - andrei_says_ 4y ago
    I think Adobe is also buying Figma’s current, and future, users. Envisioning them as creative cloud subscribers.

scottshea 4y ago

"And so Figma has won the hearts and minds of these designers. They love it. It wasn't that they disliked Adobe." In the small sample size of designers I know, they did not like Adobe

themoonisachees 4y ago
I can't think of a single person that i'm aware of that enjoys adobe products. Every single person that i've had the chance to talk to about it says they're basically a monopoly because the competition is so far behind. On second thought maybe Taran the guy who used to be an editor for LTT, he seemed like he actually enjoyed Premiere.
mrxd 4y ago
Designers hate Adobe. This acquisition caused a huge collective meltdown on Twitter, and people are saying Figma is dead now. Many people were hoping Figma would kill Adobe.

DoesntMatter22 4y ago

No way this isn't a dumb aquisition. They could have cloned it for a very small fraction of the cost. Would they get adoption? Yes, they are the biggest player in the space. 20 billion for Figma is insane

akmittal 4y ago
Facebook could have cloned Whatsapp or Instagram, but thats a risky bet. By buying figma they are getting all the users and their trust for the product. Which is difficult with a new product
- noobermin 4y ago
  Again they are adobe, literally the biggest brand in the space. Their user base trounces figma's
- iudqnolq 4y ago
  The argument is this isn't sustainable. They can't keep on buying the next Figma for $20B again and again.
llamaLord 4y ago
They tried cloning it… that’s what XD is. Didn’t exactly go well for them.
dandandan 4y ago
How long would it have taken? They're buying time

seanhunter 4y ago

They didn’t buy figma for the tech. They didn’t clone figma because even if they succeeded that would leave figma still there. They bought figma so they could kill it and restore their monopoly. Sometimes the most obvious explanation is the truth.

ehzy 4y ago
They also tried cloning Figma. It's called Adobe XD.