Adobe to buy Macromedia for $3.4 billion

Since there are a number of graphic designers/web designers in these forums, I'm curious to hear some thoughts on this.
I love Adobe and their products, but somehow I can't see how this is good for the consumer. Who is Adobes competition now? What will happen to some of the Macromedia products that so many people rely on for their day to day business? Lots of questions and concerns.

What do you think about this?

There has been a ton of speculation and (hand wringing) already on forums about the various products on both sides, what will merge, what will be axed, etc. Of course, no-one knows until Adobe does something with the newly acquired products, which likely won't happen for a little while, but I can't help but wonder what it will hold for the future of the graphics industry. Adobe is quickly becoming the new 800 pound gorilla. :o

I have to say that I'm concerned about this one. I like both company's products, and see their cross-platform approaches as valuable, but I hate to see the competitive aspect of their businesses go away. It seems to me that when one company buys out a competitor, the company that gets bought out sees their products fade away.

Macromedia has some great tools, and I don't think I like Adobe eating them up. I worry about the loss. I hope that Adobe is wise enough to continue to support Macromedia's products, and that everything won't become as expensive as Photoshop...

This means there is only shareware competition?
egads. Must read...

So Adobe Shockwave, Adobe Flash, It doesnt even sound right! :o

^ and what about Fireworks? Adobe already has Photoshop.

Too bad, I really liked Macro... I mean Adobe Fireworks.

My guess: axe for Adobe Director....

From what you said the US shouldn't allow this because it will be a monopoly

All I can say is, I guess what's done is done, and Adobe will dominate the graphic artists software, just like EA is slowly doing to the video gaming industry. But, for what it's worth, I think it will be cool to integrate Adobe Imageready and Flash without having to convert the flash and all those other things.

Adobe's softwares are great. Their Creative Suite shows they know how to present a solution of integrated tools.
I was using CyberStudio GoLive (a DreamWeaver-type of software) when Adobe acquired Cyberstudio. Then they gave us a good discount on the next version of GoLive (Adobe GoLive). It meant instead GoLive was now supported by a big company - and it's good.

I prefer Adobe's interfaces. I don't know if they will change the interface type to make all the great MacroMedia softwares Adobe-like.
I don't know either which products they will axe - or perhaps they will keep supporting the existing line of products in parallel, but make them fully compatible?

We can imagine an ultimate Creative Suite in the next couple years - Adobe + MacroMedia = wow!

@Spunky,

EA wrecked NFSU2's online interface.

I've seen several posts in the forums on this topic as well as received personal e-mails at work.

Bottom line for me...I don't care.

Businesses are going to do what's best for them in order to make money for themselves and their stock holders. I don't think its the end of the world as some seem to think. Besides, this may give some shareware company/programmer the incentive to incorporate to go big time. For that matter, another software company may see this as an opportunity to move into the market.

As long as Adobe keeps making quality products people can afford, more power to them and I'm with Hugo. If not, then I'm sure we can trust our government to step in and take care of us. ;)

Will it be:

Adobe Flash?
Adobe Dreamweaver?
Adobe Fireworks?

Only time (and moneyz) will tell.

Hmm, its sounding better to my ears now.

OffTopic - Who make Quark?

What if they decided to keep the name so they can branch out and share products?
Can you imagine:
Macromedia Reader?
Macromedia Photoshop?

I'M CONFUSED!

@Pedro, Quark is made by... Well, Quark

Hey could this possibly affect in minor ways our shockwave servers? Since shockwave.com is owned by macromedia which is now owned by adobe, we are (almost) directly affected by this, because half of our servers are run by shockwave!

Well, "hrumph" is all I say... Well, actually, I have a bit more to say...

I think the reason that they bought macromedia is so they now don't have much competition at all... I also agree very much that "Adobe Flash," and "Adobe Shockwave." just weird... :o

Niko

That sucks. Big companies buying out the competition = more money for them and less quality for the consumer....

If MS ever buys apple we are doomed....

B

@Bolo
Lol...I've been reading for years about how much money Microsoft dumps into Apple because of Monopoly woes, they don't want Apple to vanish.(see below)
I also heard that incorporating another psuedo standard code base like Linux was a corporate MS dev. Idea to broaden the Mac OS's cap. And make it more flexible and universal for app writers out there. (Yes/No?)

Here's an old article for example:
Microsoft Buys Into Apple

As far as the Macromedia/Adobe merger.
Well, now if Adobe could only buyout and repair Corel products then we'd really be in for a show! (j/k)

I remember the days before Photoshop/Adobe products were not even available for PC platform.
(The Adobe story:...of the brilliant engineers working at Xerox was John Warnock. He developed a language called "Interpress" that could be used to control Xerox laser printers. He and his boss, Charles M. 'Chuck' Geschke, tried for two years to convince Xerox to turn Interpress into a commercial product. When this failed, they decided to leave Xerox and try it on their own. John Warnock and Chuck Geschke named their company Adobe, after a little creek that ran behind the house of Warnock in Los Altos, California.)

I remember when Flash wasn't even a Macromedia product it was called "FutureSplash Animator" - Johathan Gay. (Jonathan Gay has been with Macromedia Flash since the early days of SmartSketch and FutureSplash.)

I remember DOS struggling to become Windows and needing a scaleable font technology.
(Back in the late 1980s, it was clear to most of the major players in the personal computer world that scalable font technology was going to be an important part of future operating systems. Adobe was trying to get Apple and Microsoft to license its PostScript code for this purpose. It failed. Apple had been developing what was to become TrueType from late 1987 which became Windows standard.)

Now I'll be able to say "I remember when there used to be a great software company called Macromedia."

I want my Cold Fusion
I want my Flash Action Script
I want my Freehand Vector Drawing App
I want my Photoshop and Illustrator

I guess now I only have to go to one online store to buy it all! (Big WHAAAA)

Change is eminent, but don't know if this is change for the better, for Macromedia. But, is deffinately an open door to another fledgling app builder out there.