[l3lueMage]

They have merged into one, costing them 3.4 billion dollars o.O

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq: ADBE) has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Macromedia (Nasdaq: MACR) in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $3.4 billion. Under the terms of the agreement, which has been approved by both boards of directors, Macromedia stockholders will receive, at a fixed exchange ratio, 0.69 shares of Adobe common stock for every share of Macromedia common stock in a tax-free exchange. Based on Adobe’s and Macromedia’s closing prices on Friday April 15, 2005, this represents a price of $41.86 per share of Macromedia common stock.

The combination of Adobe and Macromedia strengthens our mission of helping people and organizations communicate better. Through the combination of our powerful development, authoring and collaboration tools – and the complementary functionality of PDF and Flash – we have the opportunity to drive an industry-defining technology platform that delivers compelling, rich content and applications across a wide range of devices and operating systems.

By combining the passion and creativity of two leading-edge companies, we will continue driving innovations that are changing the ways people everywhere are experiencing and interacting with information.

Adobe is required to include the following legend on any communications that may be deemed to be offering or soliciting material under the applicable SEC rules and regulations:

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND WHERE TO FIND IT

Adobe Systems Incorporated intends to file a registration statement on Form S-4, and Adobe and Macromedia, Inc. intend to file a related joint proxy statement/prospectus, in connection with the merger transaction involving Adobe and Macromedia. Investors and security holders are urged to read the registration statement on Form S-4 and the related joint proxy/prospectus when they become available because they will contain important information about the merger transaction. Investors and security holders may obtain free copies of these documents (when they are available) and other documents filed with the SEC at the SEC's web site at www.sec.gov. In addition, investors and security holders may obtain free copies of the documents filed with the SEC by Adobe by contacting Macromedia Investor Relations at 408-536-4416. Investors and security holders may obtain free copies of the documents filed with the SEC by Macromedia by contacting Macromedia Investor Relations at 415-252-2106.

Adobe, Macromedia and their directors and executive officers may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies from the stockholders of Adobe and Macromedia in connection with the merger transaction. Information regarding the special interests of these directors and executive officers in the merger transaction will be included in the joint proxy statement/prospectus of Adobe and Macromedia described above. Additional information regarding the directors and executive officers of Adobe is also included in Adobe's proxy statement for its 2005 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which was filed with the SEC on March 14, 2005. Additional information regarding the directors and executive officers of Macromedia is also included in Macromedia's proxy statement for its 2004 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which was filed with the SEC on June 21, 2004 and Macromedia's proxy statement for a Special Meeting of Stockholders, which was filed with the SEC on October 6, 2004. These documents are available free of charge at the SEC's web site at www.sec.gov and from Investor Relations at Adobe and Macromedia as described above.

[Elliott]

You just stole that from a news post didn't you >_> .
I'm all for this, as I stated somewhere else.
Adobe has Photoshop and Illustrator which OWN Fireworks and Freehand, so hopefully we will be seeing lots of integration with Illustrator and Flash (god knows we need it).
I'm all for this merger.

[l3lueMage]

i stole it from adobe.com XD

[Elliott]

Will they call themselves Adobia?

[Max]

Agatio, you obviously don't understand the purpose of Fireworks. Fireworks is made for web graphics, not for general-purpose graphics like Photoshop is. Maybe you didn't notice, but the entire Macromedia Suite is for making websites, and that is why Fireworks was designed for making website graphics. That's why it doesn't have all the filters and complicated tools that Photoshop does; simply because they aren't needed.

I was kinda shocked by this whole announcement though, because these are the two biggest players in their industry, and so that would be like creating a monopoly. Also, they make competing products, so it'll be interesting to see how it pans out.

[Elliott]

I'm fully aware of what Macromedia Studio and what the entire company was about, I did an assignment on them for the industry knowledge unit in my multimedia course. What i'm saying is, how many people design entire websites in Fireworks, without using Photoshop? I'd say it's a minority, as Photoshop is pretty much the industry standard in graphics and general imaging. And yes, it will be very interesting to see how this unfolds, the deal is expected to close in Autumn (northern hemisphere obviously). I'm 100% for this like I said, both have awesome products, and the 4 best (Photoshop, Flash, Ilustrator and Dreamweaver), are now under the one company.

[Doom Fox]

"Apparently" they "merged"

But really, Adobe bought Macromedia.

Now this is good news, now I wonder how many new features will Flash have, animated filters? that would totally kick butt

[Andross]

I suspect Photoshop CS3 (or w/e they call it) will be )#*$)#*$ flash-integration crazy and offer more vector options now. Although, they'll probably try and keep things like vector graphics in Illustrator still.

Nonetheless, Adobe and Macromedia were in direct competition (save for photo editing), and Macromedia owned Photoshop in the web development section (Dreamweaver, ColdFusion, Flash). Save for web graphics and artwork of course.

It'll be interesting to see what happens to InDesign and ImageReady, as well as where Fireworks will go.

EDIT: The PS web coder is GoLive, not InDesign. My mistake.

[l3lueMage]

who said i even use fireworks to make my websites o.o