Adobe acquiring Macromedia

[maxlevine]

I've been a fan of Macromedia products for years so this news came as a shock and some concern. The competition was assuring me of better quality products at affordable prices. I used Adobe for design and Macromedia for web. How will Adobe develop Flash, Cold Fusion and Director? GoLive will not replace Dreamweaver in a near future. Freehand will surely die quickly while some of Fireworks features might be integrated into ImageReady.

There is an upside: the interaction of some applications will facilitate web creation (Premiere will work hand in hand with Director and Flash, etc.). Still, that is not good news for me as a consumer.

Anybody got some Adobe shares?

Max

[deaning]

Noooooooooo...it should be the other way around!

Photoshop I love for images and trusty fireworks for tweaks and text additions.

Why did adobe never take off with the 3d world creation software of atmosphere...I was going to have the first ever3d interactive gambling portal.

Ah well.

[deaning]

Adobe Systems has reached an agreement to acquire Macromedia for $3.4
billion in stock. Executives from Adobe said the combined company will
be in a position to offer consumers new applications that take
advantage of the current technologies of the two companies. Adobe is
best known for its Acrobat document software and for Photoshop, a
graphics application. Macromedia's products include Flash and
Dreamweaver, which are used by Web developers largely for animation and
other video effects and web development. The merger is expected to close this fall. Bruce
Chizen, chief executive of Adobe, hinted that some layoffs are likely
after the deal closes, but he stressed that the primary goal of the
merger is "to continue to expand and grow our business into new
markets."

This makes a monopoly out of the web design market...

http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/w...Bt.1@.3bb9f16f

[maxlevine]

Noooooooooo...it should be the other way around!

Photoshop I love for images and trusty fireworks for tweaks and text additions.

Why did adobe never take off with the 3d world creation software of atmosphere...I was going to have the first ever3d interactive gambling portal.

Ah well.

Ahhhh! A Macromedia colleague!

I seemed to be the only one here who actually cared. Started with Flash 3, found Director. I thought Director would break into the web, considering its affinity for bitmaps. Too bad. Its scripting was easy to use and fun.

I still use both Photoshop and Fireworks. And I think Dreamweaver is the best web editor.

I doubt Adobe would just eliminate most Macromedia products. But I fear we will end up paying much more... for new versions of inferior quality, more bugs and slower customer service.

Nothing good about a monopoly for the consumer.

Thanks for your post, Dean

Max