yeah right. M$FT want to kill the mac. period... the only reason they keep the mac bu is that they want the market share. If the mac was not around there would be no viable alternative. And before some hipster screams linux or BSD I mean viable to mainstream creative companies and home users...
While I don't think it will happen, an interesting sidebar is that while Google has acquired 23 companies this year, and Apple five, Microsoft hasn't made a single acquisition year to date. The only major tech company not to have bought someone. Might be saving up for a big one, or saving for retirement.
If anyone was talking merger in this meeting, it was Adobe. Microsoft needs Adobe in house now about as much as they need Nokia. Adobe is a large, expensive company who's product line is mature with limited growth (just like Nokia). Adobe wants Flash to be the mobile standard much like the desktop, but they were hampered by their own inability to deliver a working product for 3 years. And what would an Adobe+Microsoft alliance do for Flash? Clearly Microsoft already has Silverlight and is likely basing much of its developer platform for Windows Phone 7 around it. Bringing in Adobe would mean they have two incompatible code bases to deal with and neither would be on any of Apple's mobile products anyway. Combining forces wouldn't push further adoption of either company's products in the mobile space...there's just no synergy.
Not to mention that Microsoft's M&A strategy is a lot like Apple in that they usually buy smaller companies only occasionally that show a lot of upside value to them (in terms of multiples). Examples include Great Plains (which got Microsoft into the small business ERP space and Bungie, which launched Halo for the Xbox). Buying a behemoth like Adobe would return little upside value to shareholders in exchange for $25 billion dollars to Adobe investors. That money is best either reinvesting in home grown technologies, smaller more nimble acquisition targets or returning money to investors via the dividend.
Frankly, I wonder what Adobe & Microsoft even had to discuss at the CEO level.
The implication of course is that, after acquiring Adobe, Microsoft would then kill off the Mac versions of all the Adobe product lines. This logic is faulty in that Mac products are a significant source of revenue for Adobe, as is Office for Microsoft. It would be cutting off your nose to spite your face. Add to that the obvious anti-competitive ramifications and it would all but impossible for Ballmer to do this expressly to damage Apple.
Therefore the original poster's logic is ludicrous, as you imply.
Short term... maybe. Long term, well, without OSX CS down the pipeline, designers will have no choice but to get Windows version. And Windows to run it on their Macs (or a Windows PC).
At the end of the day, number of sold CS copies would be the same (more or less), MS would sell a handful more Windows OS and Office copies, Microsoft partners would sell more high-end workstations, while MS/Adobe would also save some money on developing for only 1 platform.
Folks -- Microsoft buying Adobe does not automatically mean that Photoshop etc will no longer be on the Mac. Note that Microsoft is actually *improving* Office for the Mac with the upcoming release, bringing it to feature-parity with Windows for Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and almost feature parity with Outlook. If MS were out to screw the Mac, why would they be doing that?
Microsoft would not be buying Adobe to hurt the Mac. They would be buying Adobe to compete with the iPhone. Although how they think that would help them compete with the iPhone, I really have no idea. What would Microsoft do with Silverlight? I think this really would be a bizarre strategy for MS to pursue. MS has the resources to compete with the iPhone without wasting a ton of money on Adobe. Sad if Balmer doesn't know that.
Well, Microsoft doesn't have any graphics/design oriented software... well, any decent at least (Microsoft Publisher and such don't count). Considering that, graphics/design is market they have space to grow into... thus I can see them interested in having (or purchasing into) Microsoft Creative Suite.
"beginning with the introduction of the first iPhone, and its exclusion of Flash, in 2007"
There wasn't Flash for ARM in 2007, only Flash Lite, which was a small subset of an older Flash engine.
Adobe only recently made the full Flash available and it runs like crap except on the most powerful handsets.
Last compare I have seen showed Flash (and HTML5) running better on latest Androids than HTML5 on iPhone 4. Even after people cried "conspiracy!" and came up with highly optimised HTML5 tests for iPhone, it was still slower than same tests on Androids.
If, for the sake of argument, MS bought Adobe and axed the Creative Suite on the Mac, couldn't you just dual boot into Windows (from an Intel Mac) and use Creative Suite that way?
I've heard CS is better on Windows anyway, no? What would be the difference?
I also made that point.
Pros would have to buy CS for Windows - no other choice there. MS would sell number of CS copies for Windows comparable to hypothetical Windows + OSX numbers, while reducing development costs (1 instead of 2 platforms) and making more Mac users purchase Windows and Office (since there is no iWork for Windows).
I have no idea if that would be worth fat price Adobe is commanding, but there might be a potential there.
A 5 gig Illustrator file? What the heck are you doing?
Thats exactly what I am thinking.....
Maybe He is doing a HUGE billboard project for a movie or something.. At least if he has a 64-bit capable Mac, at least he will have all the RAM at his disposal !!
Comments
I'm still on CS4. I was hoping that they would have fixed the crash happy Illustrator... it can't be WORSE... right?
I have just upgraded to cs5 no crashes no more but screen redraw speed is slower I feel. Then again I am working on a 5gb file
http://www.businessinsider.com/chart...sitions-2010-9
good, it is good for apple, so apple can create its own photoshop suites.
Well if their development of aperture and now the FCP suite is anything to go on I would not count on it.
There?s no way Microsoft would spend roughly $25B on Adobe. What exactly would they gain?
Ballmer is an idiot, but I doubt he?s that big of one.
Never underestimate the scope of his idiocy.
If anyone was talking merger in this meeting, it was Adobe. Microsoft needs Adobe in house now about as much as they need Nokia. Adobe is a large, expensive company who's product line is mature with limited growth (just like Nokia). Adobe wants Flash to be the mobile standard much like the desktop, but they were hampered by their own inability to deliver a working product for 3 years. And what would an Adobe+Microsoft alliance do for Flash? Clearly Microsoft already has Silverlight and is likely basing much of its developer platform for Windows Phone 7 around it. Bringing in Adobe would mean they have two incompatible code bases to deal with and neither would be on any of Apple's mobile products anyway. Combining forces wouldn't push further adoption of either company's products in the mobile space...there's just no synergy.
Not to mention that Microsoft's M&A strategy is a lot like Apple in that they usually buy smaller companies only occasionally that show a lot of upside value to them (in terms of multiples). Examples include Great Plains (which got Microsoft into the small business ERP space and Bungie, which launched Halo for the Xbox). Buying a behemoth like Adobe would return little upside value to shareholders in exchange for $25 billion dollars to Adobe investors. That money is best either reinvesting in home grown technologies, smaller more nimble acquisition targets or returning money to investors via the dividend.
Frankly, I wonder what Adobe & Microsoft even had to discuss at the CEO level.
Most reasonable so far.
I have just upgraded to cs5 no crashes no more but screen redraw speed is slower I feel. Then again I am working on a 5gb file
A 5 gig Illustrator file? What the heck are you doing?
This is a scary thought for all us graphic designers that rely on Creative Suite to do our jobs.
You'll just have to run it under Windows. Apple was already insisting Macs are PCs, too.
It would be much bigger problem if Apple would merge with Adobe, since non-Apple machines can't (legally) run OSX.
How can it be called a blockade if Adobe doesn't even have a full Flash for iOS to be released?
Why would Adobe invest money in creating Flash for iOS when SJ already said, more than once, that he will not let Flash on iDevices..?
The implication of course is that, after acquiring Adobe, Microsoft would then kill off the Mac versions of all the Adobe product lines. This logic is faulty in that Mac products are a significant source of revenue for Adobe, as is Office for Microsoft. It would be cutting off your nose to spite your face. Add to that the obvious anti-competitive ramifications and it would all but impossible for Ballmer to do this expressly to damage Apple.
Therefore the original poster's logic is ludicrous, as you imply.
Short term... maybe. Long term, well, without OSX CS down the pipeline, designers will have no choice but to get Windows version. And Windows to run it on their Macs (or a Windows PC).
At the end of the day, number of sold CS copies would be the same (more or less), MS would sell a handful more Windows OS and Office copies, Microsoft partners would sell more high-end workstations, while MS/Adobe would also save some money on developing for only 1 platform.
merger of 2 sinking ships = EPIC FAIL
Not as epic as your post, mate...
Folks -- Microsoft buying Adobe does not automatically mean that Photoshop etc will no longer be on the Mac. Note that Microsoft is actually *improving* Office for the Mac with the upcoming release, bringing it to feature-parity with Windows for Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and almost feature parity with Outlook. If MS were out to screw the Mac, why would they be doing that?
Microsoft would not be buying Adobe to hurt the Mac. They would be buying Adobe to compete with the iPhone. Although how they think that would help them compete with the iPhone, I really have no idea. What would Microsoft do with Silverlight? I think this really would be a bizarre strategy for MS to pursue. MS has the resources to compete with the iPhone without wasting a ton of money on Adobe. Sad if Balmer doesn't know that.
Well, Microsoft doesn't have any graphics/design oriented software... well, any decent at least (Microsoft Publisher and such don't count). Considering that, graphics/design is market they have space to grow into... thus I can see them interested in having (or purchasing into) Microsoft Creative Suite.
Just a theory.
"beginning with the introduction of the first iPhone, and its exclusion of Flash, in 2007"
There wasn't Flash for ARM in 2007, only Flash Lite, which was a small subset of an older Flash engine.
Adobe only recently made the full Flash available and it runs like crap except on the most powerful handsets.
Last compare I have seen showed Flash (and HTML5) running better on latest Androids than HTML5 on iPhone 4. Even after people cried "conspiracy!" and came up with highly optimised HTML5 tests for iPhone, it was still slower than same tests on Androids.
Have I missed anything important..?
If, for the sake of argument, MS bought Adobe and axed the Creative Suite on the Mac, couldn't you just dual boot into Windows (from an Intel Mac) and use Creative Suite that way?
I've heard CS is better on Windows anyway, no? What would be the difference?
I also made that point.
Pros would have to buy CS for Windows - no other choice there. MS would sell number of CS copies for Windows comparable to hypothetical Windows + OSX numbers, while reducing development costs (1 instead of 2 platforms) and making more Mac users purchase Windows and Office (since there is no iWork for Windows).
I have no idea if that would be worth fat price Adobe is commanding, but there might be a potential there.
I still think APPL should acquire ADBE.
There are many strategic reasons, but after all ADBE is in very profitable business selling plastic.
A 5 gig Illustrator file? What the heck are you doing?
Thats exactly what I am thinking.....
Maybe He is doing a HUGE billboard project for a movie or something.. At least if he has a 64-bit capable Mac, at least he will have all the RAM at his disposal !!
Many have joked Apple should have bought Adobe long ago ... now I wonder if this may have been a good idea.
Yeah, this Microshaft/Adobe in bed together is the worse thing that could happen to us all.
In fact, a nightmare!
Hurry up Apple, and BUY BLOODY ADOBE !!!
So is Microsoft merging under Adobe?
I truely truely hope this is not going down.
Please no, please NO!
Adobe will go eventually. To MSFT, AAPL, GOOG or even ORCL.
I still think APPL should acquire ADBE.
There are many strategic reasons, but after all ADBE is in very profitable business selling plastic.
Adobe is actually less profitable now than they were three years ago. Meanwhile Apple grows profits at a rate of 30-50% per year.
Apple is in the very profitable business. Compared to Apple, Adobe is a boat anchor.