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Why Did Adobe Buy Macromedia?

Posted by samzenpus on from the money-fixes-everything dept.

option8 writes "According to John Dvorak the reasoning behind Adobe's recent (and to many, surprising) purchase of Macromedia for $3.4 billion is that Adobe was afraid Microsoft was going to do it first. An interesting look at the thinking and attitude of Adobe from someone who's been following them for a long time. From TFA: "So, mostly out of fear, Adobe buys its main competitor and now must shoehorn the company into its unfortunate not-invented-here corporate culture. (This aspect of Adobe is another story in itself.)""

25 of 563 comments (clear)

  1. MS Paint by fembots · · Score: 5, Funny

    Like the article said, Adobe was simply acting out of fear, uncetainty and doubt. Microsoft already has a competent flagship MS Paint, it doesn't need anything else.

    And what about Gimp? Is it really not a threat to Adobe at all?

    It'll be fun to watch if Microsoft hinted that it's looking at forking Gimp, Adobe will go nuts about that!

    --
    Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
    1. Re:MS Paint by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Frontpage Express was simple enough (for its day) that I used in when I was first learning HTML. It made easy to follow script that I could also edit by hand.

      I agree that Frontpage 97 and beyond is horrible at this.

    2. Re:MS Paint by Scaba · · Score: 4, Funny

      I thought he said "fuck", as in "Microsoft is going to fuck the gimp."

    3. Re:MS Paint by Pig+Hogger · · Score: 2, Funny
      Plumbing SUCKS.
      Well, at least, pipes won't clog...
  2. Because only by joining forces by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Can Flash and PDF kill the web. Muahahahahahahaha.

  3. They needed a marketing jingle? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    To the tune of Yankee Doodle:

    We bought a company out of fear and called in Macradobe!

    I know that somebody can figure out more lyrics on this. It is 4/20 after all.

    1. Re:They needed a marketing jingle? by NanoGator · · Score: 5, Funny

      "We bought a company out of fear and called in Macradobe!"

      Then mister Gates bought us both and told the gov to blow me!

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    2. Re:They needed a marketing jingle? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
      I know that somebody can figure out more lyrics on this. It is 4/20 after all.
      So what if it's Hitler's birthday? Are you asking people to finish your jingle with National Socialist propaganda? That's kind of weird.

      Godwin? What's "Godwin" got to do with anything?
    3. Re:They needed a marketing jingle? by PsiPsiStar · · Score: 2, Funny

      We bought a company out of fear and called in Macradobe!

      I know that somebody can figure out more lyrics on this. It is 4/20 after all.       ...and noone will complete this song cause they're all smoking doobies?

      --

      ___
      It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
  4. Re:Does this mean that flash will full of DRM? by NanoGator · · Score: 3, Funny

    "That does seem to be what Adobe is doing to its full product line lately, adding all kinds of DRM. Hmm."

    Why on Earth would DRM in flash movies bother you?

    --
    "Derp de derp."
  5. Re:According to John Dvorak? by Dante+Shamest · · Score: 5, Funny
    I would trust a random guy on slashdot much more than I'd trust Dvorak's insights...

    Trust John Dvorak.

    - Random Slashdot Guy
  6. Re:Hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny
    If Microsoft really want's Macromedia, they'll probably be more then happy to by Adobe, who bought Macromedia.

    To by Adobe?
    To sit by Adobe?
    to walk by Adobe?
    to go by Adobe?
    oh, wait, you mean to buy Adobe, as in purchase Adobe. That is what you meant, isn't it?
  7. Re:According to John Dvorak? by brsmith4 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Wow, that guy's a fucking idiot. Its like listening to a 5 year old give his political opinion.

  8. Why Did Adobe Buy Macromedia? by kfonda · · Score: 3, Funny


    Why Did Adobe Buy Macromedia?

    To get to the other side?

    I'm sorry, but it's 420 day. :-)

  9. Dvorak at his BEST... IDLE-TIME PROCESS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    " IDLE-TIME PROCESS. Once in a while the system will go into an idle mode, requiring from five minutes to half an hour to unwind. It's weird, and I almost always have to reboot. When I hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete, I see that the System Idle Process is hogging all the resources and chewing up 95 percent of the processor's cycles. Doing what? Doing nothing? Once in a while, after you've clicked all over the screen trying to get the system to do something other than idle, all your clicks suddenly ignite and the screen goes crazy with activity. This is not right."

    Yup, he really said that

    OH SHIT... SYSTEM IDLE PROCESS is EATING 100% of my CPU !?!? Gotta run.
    1. Re:Dvorak at his BEST... IDLE-TIME PROCESS by RedLaggedTeut · · Score: 3, Funny

      I heard the problem of the Idle Process EATING all processor time can be succesfully combatted by installing system diagnostics software, such as folding@home(www.grid.org) and seti@home(BOINC). These also output very pretty diagnostic information.

      --
      I'm still trying to figure out what people mean by 'social skills' here.
  10. Re:According to John Dvorak? by ZeroOne42 · · Score: 5, Funny

    ..but don't trust the random slashdot guy.

    - Random Slashdot Guy

  11. Re:Who's afraid of the big bad MS boogie man? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    So they act like an 800 pound gorilla...

    Mr. Ballmer in particular. (I've got this great mental image of him on the empire state building screaming "Developers! Developers!" while swatting down bi-planes.)

  12. Re:According to John Dvorak? by Random+Slashdot+Guy · · Score: 5, Funny
    Why are you guys impersonating me?

    GP: Trust no one

    --
    - Random Slashdot Guy
  13. Quite right by Craig+Ringer · · Score: 2, Funny

    You're quite right, it was Photoshop Elements that I meant.

    Whoops.

    1. Re:Quite right by deranged+unix+nut · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yes, yes...thank you. I was thinking Photoshop Elements when I typed CS in my original post.

  14. The Ballad of Big Adobe. by flux4 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ok, here's my best shot. Thanks to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for the lyrics and karaoke music.

    Big Adobe went to town
    Riding with great worry
    "Microsoft might buy our foes
    Goodness let us hurry"

    Big Adobe, buy them out
    Big Adobe dandy
    Mind the lawsuits and the FUD
    And with your cash be handy

    Macromedia went to the web
    With great Flash and vigour
    Then Adobe said to them:
    "We ownz you, start to quiver"

    Big Adobe, buy them out
    Get yourself a trophy
    Buy a business out of fear
    And call it Macradobe

    All you geeks and all you nerds
    Reading this here story
    Remember what the Parent said
    And call it Macradobe

    1. Re:The Ballad of Big Adobe. by flux4 · · Score: 2, Funny

      DroopyStonx went on the net
      Feeling kind of bitter
      Can't write epic poems like me
      Let's just call him a quitter

  15. Obvious the TRUTH. by philovivero · · Score: 2, Funny

    Adobe paid so much for Macromedia so they could inflate the already-overinflated ego of the Incredibly Annoying Marc Cantor, and to get the already-rock-bottom-stupid opinion of the Incredibly Annoying John Dvorak and stick them together into an unholy reaction that will power the world's Mac computers for another century, freeing up all that cash for Adobe.

    --
    fifth sigma, inc.
  16. Translation of the Adobe Statement by The+Grassy+Knoll · · Score: 1, Funny

    Neatly summed up by Daring Fireball

    --
    They will never know the simple pleasure of a monkey knife fight