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Adobe's biggest deal was its $4.75 billion acquisition of Marketo in the year 2000.
Why pay twice as much as Figma's most recent private valuation if you're not in its pricing comfort zone? It's about taking a potential rival off the market. There is more to this deal than just playing defense.
Adobe saw a company that could fundamentally alter their organization when IBM bought Red Hat for $34 billion.
The hybrid cloud was the focus of the acquisition by IBM. It was the digital workplace for both of them, but they made huge offers for a key company to get ahead of it. The pieces were kept independent with the CEO in place.
Adobe may have seen the Figma deal as its organization-changing moment as it watched the creative market make a key change from one centered on creating assets with tools likePhotoshop and Illustrator to one firmly focused on the creators themselves and the collaborative nature of the design process.
Most of Adobe's business has been built in the former. The old-guard company was willing to spend a lot of money to grab Figma, a startup that wanted to change the way people thought about design in a digital context.
We spoke to people from the companies involved, Figma investors and industry analysts to find out why the deal fell apart. There were many reasons, but perhaps the best was that Figma and Adobe think they will be better together.
How Red Hat became the tip of the spear for IBM’s rejuvenation strategy
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