19 Apr Adobe to aquire Macromedia
In one of the largest announcements to hit the design community of late, Adobe has bought out Macromedia for a whopping $3.4 Billion. Thats not liquid, but using some sort of tax loopy stock exchange where current Macromedia stockholders would “own approximately 18 percent of the combined company”.
Macromedia’s site hosts a press release that contains the typical lawyerspeak and doubletalk that pervades every spin release and tries to make this aquisition seem more like a merger than what it really is: another loss for consumers.
The last few editions of Photoshop have not added much more functionality or improvements over older versions that many graphic artists just dont want to shell another $400 just for the honor of incrementing that version number next to the software title. While I love FlashMX I cannot say that your average animator needs it to create the same tweens that have been the cornerstone of flash animation. In fact, one could create the same animation with Flash 4 or FlashMX 04.
I hope I’m wrong and Adobe and Macromedia team up and deliver new products that incite us to want them.
For some other thoughts on the merger check out Mike Chambers’s blog. He’s the Product manager, Developer relations for Macromedia.
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