Microsoft buys Macromedia? (from MOSR)

Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
I happened to be glancing at that other place *cough* MOSR *cough* and saw something that made me nearly lose my dinner.



Now I don't place any faith in that site, especially the past year or so when every "rumor" seems to be coming straight out of that guys head. But what I saw creeps me out and I had to see if anyone has any thoughts about it.



It was an email supposedly from some guy talking about Microsoft buying Macromedia. This seems like a very real and very terrifying prospect to me. I am a huge fan of MM's software, and use is on a daily basis. They aren't know for the most bug-free stuff in the world, and the performance is rather crap, but what the software does is unparalleled IMHO.



The thought of MS buying them out sends shivers down my spine. I have never been able to stand a lot of their software - I find it completely bloated and unintuitive. I don't want my software to try to think for me, I want it to do what I tell it to, period.



My wife just finished up a 200+ page dissertation done in Word v.X and those are some of the few moments in the past couple years where I have literally been yelling at the computer.



At this point MM seems to be ripe for a take-over. They are relatively small for a company in the computer industry, make some of the pre-eminent software in the web field, and haven't been doing well financially (I should know, I own some of their stock).



Anyone have any thoughts on this? I keep trying to close my eyes, hum really loud and pretend like I didn't read this, but I am afraid of having nightmares! I am going to go fix myself a stiff drink now.



(edited title - Brad)



[ 09-10-2002: Message edited by: Brad ]</p>

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 9
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    MS having control on Flash and other goodies?



    Copying Apple in trying to create quality "i" apps?



    THAT would be sending shivers down my spine.



    And as usual, Joe public will think that its MS that came up with the grand idea to make iMovie like programs and the such... or maybe even pro software.



    egads
  • Reply 2 of 9
    Better yet: MS buys Macromedia AND Adobe.



    I can't wait for "Microsoft Photoshop 2004" and "MS Flash XP" etc.
  • Reply 3 of 9
    Thing is, I can see why MM is going down the tubes. They came out with groundbreaking products like Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks and bought oldFusion, but after that, the magic fizzled. Version 4 of DW was a joke, not even worth the upgrade price.



    Flash started out being really, really cool but then fizzed out probably because the format was proprietary. If the .swf format was made open-source then the editor would still make them money.



    Same with ColdFusion. I used to see a lot of sites with the .cfm extension, now more and more I've seen use PHP or Java, both of which are open-source.



    Why would Microsoft buy them? Microsoft's reputation is to buy the leader, the hottest, or emerging companies with distictive products M$ can add to their collective. MM is now a small, stable web=based software company. They'll be around for a little while longer.



    But they need to innovate in order to grow.



    -Composer
  • Reply 4 of 9
    Let's use some more descriptive thread titles, mmm-kay?



    Thanks.

    - Brad
  • Reply 5 of 9
    pyr3pyr3 Posts: 946member
    [quote]Originally posted by Composer:

    <strong>Thing is, I can see why MM is going down the tubes. They came out with groundbreaking products like Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks and bought oldFusion, but after that, the magic fizzled. Version 4 of DW was a joke, not even worth the upgrade price.



    Flash started out being really, really cool but then fizzed out probably because the format was proprietary. If the .swf format was made open-source then the editor would still make them money.



    Same with ColdFusion. I used to see a lot of sites with the .cfm extension, now more and more I've seen use PHP or Java, both of which are open-source.



    Why would Microsoft buy them? Microsoft's reputation is to buy the leader, the hottest, or emerging companies with distictive products M$ can add to their collective. MM is now a small, stable web=based software company. They'll be around for a little while longer.



    But they need to innovate in order to grow.



    -Composer</strong><hr></blockquote>



    .swf is open format. It used to be proprietary.



    [edit:] openswf.org



    [ 09-11-2002: Message edited by: pyr3 ]</p>
  • Reply 6 of 9
    If MS takes over Macromedia then its all over. swf will tie into windows media player only. Flash and DW will be refocussed to work only on windows and Director X will never see the light of day. Freehand will give MS a way into design (many of us prefer Freehand to Illustrator).



    Why don't apple buy Macromedia? They're ripe for it and frankly I can see a better symbiosis here. Or is steve just obsessed with trying to be a hollywood hotshot after all the post oscars parties he gets invited to?
  • Reply 7 of 9
    [quote] Flash started out being really, really cool but then fizzed out probably because the format was proprietary. If the .swf format was made open-source then the editor would still make them money. <hr></blockquote>





    Do you have any idea what you're talking about?



    Flash is a thousand times more common, accepted, and used now than 2 years ago.

    It's developed into an almost-total web application development suite.



    Flash is expanding beyond the PC to phones, appliances, etc.



    Flash is FAR cooler now with all that they've added to ActionScript.

    It's practically a full-fledged language.



    Not to mention the inclusion of accessability improvements, video support, a drawing API, better XML support and a more powerful in-application script editor and debugger.



    The only way I can see Flash becoming less popular as an application development suite - is for the casual 'got it off hotline' putterer for whom the application has grown beyond their understanding or interest.



    if that's the case . . . sorry! =)



    as for this rumor.



    It sounds like crap.

    Macromedia does fine on their own.

    MS will not buy them.

    I do believe, however, that there are high level talks about inclusion of flash content in .NET products, etc. Makes a lot of sense.

    what ALSO makes sense is Apple talkign to MM about Flash - for inclusion in products, services, etc

    and also because MM makes a poor Macintosh port of their applications and the Flash plugin still does not perform nearly as well on the Mac.



    I think any expansion of FLash's use is great.



    ceasing development on any platform for their tools would be a VERY bad idea.



    Macromedia really does sell a lot of copies of Flash for Mac. They can't afford to lose Flash developers.
  • Reply 8 of 9
    [quote]If MS takes over Macromedia then its all over. swf will tie into windows media player only. Flash and DW will be refocussed to work only on windows and Director X will never see the light of day. Freehand will give MS a way into design (many of us prefer Freehand to Illustrator).<hr></blockquote>



    Macromedia benefits greatly for every single media player that includes Flash support.

    They get licensing fees and more people developing for it - so more software sales.



    This will not happen.



    Besides, you think MM would really want to give Adobe an inroad for LiveMotion by dropping multiple platform support?



    No way.





    Besides, Illustrator is practically the defacto standard.
  • Reply 9 of 9
    [quote]Thing is, I can see why MM is going down the tubes. They came out with groundbreaking products like Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks and bought oldFusion, but after that, the magic fizzled. Version 4 of DW was a joke, not even worth the upgrade price.<hr></blockquote>



    Yeah - I stayed with version 3 until MX came out.

    I personally think this situation isn't the quality of the tools (which are some of the finest for what they do) but the fact they are a niche player. Besides Director everything is all up inside some web, and with the dot-bomb and the focus on integration and real world application of technology these days, they have no new clients for their software. Kind of like Apple selling to their installed base for the past 5 years.



    [quote]Flash started out being really, really cool but then fizzed out probably because the format was proprietary. If the .swf format was made open-source then the editor would still make them money.<hr></blockquote>



    I still think flash is really really cool when done right. It is pretty much ubiquitous when it comes to web animation, but because of the time it took to make it into anything more than a fun web plaything they missed the boat with it. People don't like flash, they don't like plug-ins (and 90% don't even know what a plug-in is), and they won't be bothered to upgrade their plug-ins unless it is shoved down their throat. With the blossoming of ActionScript in Flash 5 and the continued refinement into a real application platform in MX, the tools are there, people have just formed an opinion they aren't going to get rid of. If Hyundai builds a car better than BMW I doubt I would buy it - the name is Hyundai and I will always think they are crap. Too bad, because you can build some sweet applications in flash these days.



    [quote]Same with ColdFusion. I used to see a lot of sites with the .cfm extension, now more and more I've seen use PHP or Java, both of which are open-source.<hr></blockquote>



    Yep - I am seeing less and less cold fusion around too. Part of the problem with that is the horrid performance unless you know what you are doing with it, and part of it in my mind is what Apple is going to find with Emagic. Cold Fusion developers (web application developers - geeks) saw it get bought out by a WYSIWYG tool and animation tool builder - a fluff peddler. Geeks hate fluff. Man overboard! I fear Apple with EMagic and their other recent acquisitions better be careful or face the same fate.



    [quote]Why would Microsoft buy them? Microsoft's reputation is to buy the leader, the hottest, or emerging companies with distictive products M$ can add to their collective. MM is now a small, stable web=based software company. They'll be around for a little while longer.<hr></blockquote>



    Who knows really? I really hope so (they seem to have revenue troubles these days). But they build great tools - they are known to be buggy, but would that bother Microsoft <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" /> For MS, a company with their fingers in every pie on the table, the builder of the best web tools seems like a great grab to me.



    Integrate these things into any number of places in the MS empire - can't hurt - and it can't make things any bigger or unmanageable than they are already. Hell, combine DW with FrontPage and then maybe FrontPage wouldn't be crap (or maybe it would be more crap?). Course you would lose some DW users, but I bet most DW users are on windows anyways, and they would probably stick it out.



    [quote]But they need to innovate in order to grow.<hr></blockquote>



    Definitely. They need to grow out of the WYSIWYG niche the are in and into bigger web application circles. And while doing that hopefully stumble upon the killer app holy grail that everyone is always searching for. It's a jungle out there, I have no clue which way I would jump if it were me. But if nothing else I would be jumping like mad in place.



    It would scare me seeing Apple buy them too - just because I love the Mac doesn't mean I think they should own all the tools. I like the idea of Apple building great versions of the tools, but have no idea if they really would (FCP seems a good program, but I don't use it so I don't know).



    Right now MM sells software to any developer who will buy it - they try to play nice with everyone. I hate to think of Apple buying them, losing all the thousands of Windows users, sales going way down, and my daily heavy lifting tools turned into Appleworks.



    Course I would rather see that than have to rely on Microsoft to carry the torch. I already have to use MS products to be able to communicate with clients. I can't imagine MS doing anything to MM products that would lead me to do anything besides look for alternatives.



    [ 09-11-2002: Message edited by: The Pie Man ]</p>
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