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Adobe and Macromedia Shareholders Approve Merger

Posted by Zonk on from the so-happy-together dept.

Steve Nixon wrote to mention a CRN article discussing the shareholder approval of a merger between Adobe and Macromedia. From the article: "The deal, announced in early April, is slated to close this fall pending government approval. On Thursday, the companies said nearly 99 percent of the outstanding Adobe and Macromedia shares voted were cast in favor of the deal. Adobe's powerful PDF franchise and Macromedia's ubiquitous Flash presence on PCs, Macs and other devices could make the combined company a prodigious counterweight even to Microsoft, several observers said."

11 of 169 comments (clear)

  1. With as little information as we've got? by lostchicken · · Score: 3, Interesting

    At this point, there's very little information available about which products will and will not survive the merger. Why would any shareholder approve a merger when all he/she knew was that the two companies were to merge?

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    -twb
  2. wise tactical move by apt_user · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This can only be a maneuver to prevent microsoft from buying either one of the two companies. Combined they dont necessarily stand to make more money than they would alone, but it creates a united front to keep microsoft out of their media software niche.

  3. Hooray! by nmb3000 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Now we can have a Flash ad with an embedded PDF document which plays a RealMedia clip!

    Besides, "a real powerhouse competitor to Microsoft"? Um.... Microsoft makes office software and operating systems. They make almost zippo from Windows Media Player. Two big multimedia-oriented companies and a pain-in-the-ass-that-just-won't-die video tech company have what influence on Microsoft?

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    "What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
    /)
    1. Re:Hooray! by timeOday · · Score: 1, Interesting
      I don't know about you, but I'm *glad* .pdf came along and countered the then-growing trend of posting links to .doc documents. I'm glad flash came along and nipped that atrocity ActiveX in the bud. I'm glad when I find websites using Real rather than Windows Media, because Real files play on my linux desktop and most Windows Media links don't work at all.

      I guess you don't see any links there, but I do.

  4. Normal patterns in a maturing industry by ben_white · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I see this as just normal patterns in a maturing industry. As the technology era matures, the number of significant players decreases. This is happening even faster in the modern era where governments are pulling down barriers to this type of integration in the name of "free trade." There are of course downsides to this pattern. The larger the entity the more difficut true innovation is. True innovation will continue on the fringes of the industry in the smaller startups and by individuals.

    I think our real fear should not be of this kind of commercial merger squashing innovation, but of our screwed up patent system strangling the type of innovation that started the technology and information revolution.

    cheers, ben

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    cheers, ben

    Never miss a good chance to shut up -- Will Rogers
  5. Re:Imagine... by dnoyeb · · Score: 4, Interesting

    As a programmer, its hard to imagine a design that allows a piece of software I launch to assist my program, crash my program, or bring my program to complete uselessness. This was the standard in windows 3.1 days.

    WTF does acrobat bring IE and Firefox both to their knees. And why cant you cancel it? Why is it allowed to lock up the browser, and every instance of it completely?

    What is wrong with that architecture, and why do both IE and Firefox follow the same flawed model? Or is this some windows architectural thing getting involved?

  6. Re:counterweight? .. or easier target? by dabigpaybackski · · Score: 2, Interesting
    PDF does have a grip on academic publications, but there are other technologies that can duplicate it.

    Perhaps, but PDF is an open standard, and ubiquitous. Search for a document on Google and you get a screen full of PDF links. You want to download a manual for your new sound card? PDF. You want to print up a corporate shareholder report? It's probably a PDF.

    PDF isn't going anywhere.

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    "OH SHIT, THERE'S A HORSE IN THE HOSPITAL!"
  7. Simple by melted · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Adobe vs. Microsoft.

    AFAIK Microsoft is getting their PDF and Flash replacements ready as we speak.

    http://www.actionscript.com/archives/00000587.html
    http://www.pdfzone.com/category2/0,1874,1836049,00 .asp

  8. SVG by chri · · Score: 2, Interesting

    My hope is that this merger does not weaken Adobe's support for SVG.

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    greetings earthlings
  9. Re:competition by FLEB · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Well, CorelDRAW is still left against Adobe Illustrator. Photoshop tromps PhotoPaint outright, but for usability and features, DRAW blows AI away. You've also got the lower-consumer-end contender, PaintShop Pro, which Corel just bought out (I think it was) this last year.

    Of course, it sounds like Corel's going to try targeting Draw more toward corporate users, which will further lower printers' opinions of CorelDRAW designers (as inept hacks), even though DRAW has a suprising array of prepress tools and very good native PDF support built in.

    From what I hear (through the rumor mill), Adobe's liable to kill Freehand, among other things, which is another comparable-if-not-greater app to Illustrator.

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    Information wants to be free.
    Entertainment wants to be paid.
    You just want to be cheap.
  10. Re:counterweight? .. or easier target? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    TeX, maybe...?