The marriage between Adobe and Figma has failed. The EU and the UK did not like the unification, after which both companies decided to abandon the plans.

Adobe wanted to tie the knot. The dowry: 20 billion dollars. However, the wedding is canceled after protests from both the EU and the UK. Europe has already indicated in a preliminary conclusion that, according to the committee’s analysis, Adobe’s acquisition of Figma would have a detrimental effect on competition in the market for vector and raster editing tools. Also the Competitions and market authority of the United Kingdom found that both parties had a competitive offer in an otherwise uncompetitive market.

Friends and competitors

The takeover plans were announced on September 15, 2022, but are now in the trash can. The two are not happy: “Adobe and Figma strongly disagree with the regulator’s recent findings, but we believe it is in our mutual interest to move forward independently,” said Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen.

Adobe and Figma say they will terminate the acquisition by mutual agreement. To make the divorce less painful, both parties reassure each other a little. David Wadhwani, President, Digital Media Business at Adobe: “Figma has built an incredible product design platform and I am confident in its continued innovation and growth after spending more than a year with the Figma team and community .”

Adobe and Figma want to continue working together: “I am impressed with Dylan and his incredible team at Figma and will look for ways to work together to delight mutual customers in the future,” said Wadhwani.

In practice, the two are direct competitors and the competition will break out again in the near future. This is possible for Adobe even without Figma, emphasizes Narayen: “We remain well positioned to capitalize on our enormous market opportunities and our mission to change the world through personalized digital experiences.” Since its inception, Figma has had the ambition to fill the gap between imagination and reality. This focus should once again serve as a guide for the company’s next chapter.

Antitrust fears

After years of large (American) takeovers, regulators appear to have become more stringent on takeovers recently. This failure is only the second in two years: Last year, Nvidia’s acquisition of Arm was canceled under pressure from regulators. Despite much excitement, Broadcom’s acquisition of Vmware was able to move forward.