ADOBE EATS UP MACROMEDIA

This is a shocking news. The makers of Photoshop and Acrobat eats up the makers of Flash and Dreamweaver. This will only spell total domination by Adobe. Nice move man! Adobe acquires Macromedia in an all-stock transaction valued at US$3.4 billion at the close of fourth quarter 2005. A press release said the two companies will provide customers with a 'more powerful set of solutions for creating, managing and delivering compelling content'. You can only think that they will get better. Both are superior software makers. I personally think .pdf is a marvellous invention file format. It is just so incredible!

When is the last time a software by Adobe or Macromedia crashes on you?

Here are some facts:

Adobe Systems Incorporated

• MARKET: Graphics, video and business document software
• FOUNDED: 1982
• HEADQUARTERS: San Jose, Calif.
• CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER: Bruce Chizen
• STOCK: ADBE (Nasdaq)
• EMPLOYEES: Approximately 4,000
• REVENUE: $1.67 billion in fiscal 2004
• CUSTOMERS: Creative professionals, enterprises and governments, photo and video hobbyists
• MARKET PRESENCE:

* More than a half-billion copies of Adobe Reader have been distributed worldwide.
* The world’s top 10 PC manufacturers ship their systems with Adobe PDF technology pre-installed.
* More than 700 thousand copies of Adobe Creative Suite shipped in its first year (October 2004).

Macromedia, Inc

• MARKET: Web and application development software
• FOUNDED: 1982
• HEADQUARTERS: San Francisco, Calif.
• FOUNDED: 1992
• CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER: Stephen Elop
• STOCK: MACR (Nasdaq)
• EMPLOYEES: Approximately 1,500
• REVENUE: $422 million in CY 2004
• CUSTOMERS: Web and application developers, business users, mobile ecosystem
• MARKET PRESENCE:

* Macromedia Flash Player is installed on more than 98% of Internet-connected desktops and more than half a billion users have the Flash client installed.
* More than 25 million Flash-enabled devices have shipped.
* Macromedia products are used by 90 percent of Fortune 1000 companies.

One wonders what the new products will be called? Will they still maintain the same brandname? Or you get something like Adobe Flash or Adobe Dreamweaver? Hmmm...