Adobe is buying rival Figma for $20 billion

We've seen lots of massive successful, ongoing, and failed acquisition attempts lately. This includes Sony's successful $3.6 billion acquisition of Bungie, Microsoft's ongoing purchase of Activision Blizzard for $70 billion, and Elon Musk's failed - but still hotly contested - buyout of Twitter at around $44 billion. Today, we'll be adding another major acquisition to this list as Adobe is acquiring its rival Figma for $20 billion.

Adobe says that the half cash and half stock deal is valued at $20 billion and that the acquisition is meant to accelerate collaborative creativity for customers of both companies. The focus is on enhancing web solutions powered by Adobe's cloud expertise. Adobe has noted that:

Together, Adobe and Figma will reimagine the future of creativity and productivity, accelerate creativity on the web, advance product design and inspire global communities of creators, designers and developers. The combined company will have a massive, fast-growing market opportunity and capabilities to drive significant value for customers, shareholders and the industry.

The acquisition certainly poses interesting questions regarding anti-competitiveness considering that both companies are major players in the same space of offering design tools to customers across various platforms. Although Figma is quite popular on the web, it has apps on desktop and mobile too. Similarly, Adobe needs little introduction since its suite of professional tools for creative audiences are highly popular both in the enterprise and personal use market.

The hurdles that such a massive acquisition could potentially face remains to be seen. Microsoft, for example, has been facing quite a tough time with the UK regulator Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) regarding its massive acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

The deal is expected to close sometime in 2023, subject to regulatory and stakeholder approvals. Until that happens, both companies will continue to operate independently. However, following the closure of the deal, Figma's co-founder and CEO Dylan Field will continue to lead his Figma team while reporting to Adobe's Digital Media president David Wadhwani. In a separate blog, Field has emphasized that in terms of operations, Figma will continue to run as is, but that both companies will be collaborating to offer the best value to their customers and figuring out ways to grow faster.