The UK’s competitors watchdog has concluded its preliminary investigation into Adobe’s $20 billion acquisition of cloud-based product design platform Figma, warning that the merger might trigger a “substantial lessening of competitors” for UK designers by eradicating a “important aggressive menace to Adobe” from the market. The Competitors and Markets Authority introduced on Friday that except Adobe or Figma can supply “acceptable undertakings” to handle its considerations by July seventh, the acquisition will likely be topic to a deeper investigation that dangers derailing the deal totally.
“We’re anxious this deal might stifle innovation and result in greater prices for corporations that depend on Figma and Adobe’s digital instruments — as they stop to compete to supply clients with new and higher merchandise,” stated Sorcha O’Carroll, senior mergers director on the CMA. “Except Adobe can put ahead viable options to our considerations within the coming days, we are going to transfer to a extra in-depth investigation.”
Each corporations have argued that Adobe isn’t a major competitor to Figma
In accordance with the summary of the CMA’s decision, each events of the merger argued that Adobe isn’t a major competitor to Figma within the all-in-one product design software program market. The CMA acknowledged inside its findings that Adobe had “considerably decreased funding” into the corporate’s personal devoted product design utility, Adobe XD, previous to the merger however expressed concern that the software program stays “certainly one of solely a restricted variety of shut alternate options to Figma” alongside providers like Sketch.
Furthermore, whereas Adobe XD is no longer generally available as a standalone product, the CMA discovered that Adobe had considerably invested in growing a brand new device for whiteboarding, advertising design, and product design, solely to cancel the undertaking shortly earlier than asserting the Figma acquisition. Adobe stated that the choice to cancel the unnamed undertaking was unrelated to the merger. Nonetheless, the CMA claims that inside paperwork evaluating deliberate options for the device to these Figma already offers point out Adobe’s prior intent to instantly compete with the corporate.
