When Adobe announced it was putting up $20 billion to buy Figma in September 2022, it didn’t take long before people began assuming it was a blatant attempt to take a competitor off the market.
It was certainly curious, especially considering the offer was double what the company’s most recent valuation had been and worth around 50x Figma’s revenue. It’s hard to argue that the deal wasn’t a display of brute force on Adobe’s part, the kind of corporate rollup that regulators are trying to put a stop to after years of letting the tech giants run rampant, buying up startups that could eventually erode their market share.
The proposed Adobe-Figma deal has certainly gotten the attention of regulators — and not in a welcoming way. Already, the Justice Department, the Competition and Markets Authority …
