Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen set up an hour long secret meeting to discuss a variety of topics, including a possible acquisition of Adobe by Microsoft. According to The New York Times, some of the discussions focused on how the two companies could also take down Apple's mobile market share.
As Apple continues to dominate the mobile market, with Google quickly catching up, Microsoft is stepping into the mobile game, possibly a little too late to make a strong impact within the next year. However, that hasn't stopped Microsoft from doing whatever it can to make the largest impact possible.
The discussions between Microsoft and Adobe have remained quiet, but sources say that talks regarding Microsoft acquiring Adobe were mentioned. Discussions of a possible merger might even end here, but this is pause for thought for both Microsoft and Adobe, after all, this is how Microsoft came about a search deal with the second largest search giant, Yahoo!
When Microsoft launched Silverlight in 2007, they became a direct competitor of Adobe Flash. If Microsoft does acquire Adobe, we could eventually see a slow phase out of Adobe Flash Player, and see Microsoft Silverlight slowly take its place. With Microsoft holding 100% of the market, Apple and Google could potentially be in trouble, unless web developers decide to adopt HTML5.
At the time of posting, Adobe stock soared over 11% on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
Thanks to Mephistopheles for pointing this out on the Community Forums!
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