Adobe’s massive $20 billion bid to buy rival Figma is now live Officially deadAfter the companies said today that regulatory pressures in Europe caused an end to acquisition plans.
The deal was first announced in September last year, and was always going to attract regulatory scrutiny given the size of the deal and the fact that it took one of Adobe’s main competitors out of the picture. It was the US Department of Justice (DoJ). Looking closely at the deal For the better part of 2023, though, it has yet to file any formal lawsuit to prevent the deal from happening — but the news appeared Before the weekend, Adobe and Figma were meeting with the Department of Justice in a last-ditch effort to avoid legal action.
Regardless, both companies were already facing significant headwinds in Europe. The UK concluded in late November that the proposed takeover would “Harmful innovationAn in-depth investigation will then be launched, following up on a similar outcome in the European Union which announced a similar course of action in August.
The gist of the concerns was that Figma was the “market leader” for interactive product design tools, and that it was acting as a “restraining influence” on Adobe in the area of digital asset creation tools – and thus, Adobe’s purchase of Figma would prevent Figma from being an “effective competitor.”
in Today’s blog postDylan Field, Figma’s CEO and co-founder, said they reached a “mutual decision” after failing to convince regulators of the differences between their products and businesses.
“It is not the outcome we had hoped, but despite the thousands of hours we have spent with regulators around the world detailing the differences between our business, products and the markets we serve, we no longer see a path to regulatory approval for the deal.” Al-Maidan said.
This is a developing story, check back for updates.