Recently, you might have heard that full-stack developer title now includes graphic design.
If you didn’t get the joke, they were referring to Figma as a fundamental tool in digital design.
Since its initial release in September 2016, Figma provides a collaborative platform for designing interfaces.
Barely weeks after Heroku terminated free hosting plans, Figma’s acquisition by Adobe Inc. becomes the next ‘bad news’ in tech.
The acquisition has been confirmed by Figma’s Co-founder Dylan Field in a blog post dated September 15, 2022.
He says, “Today, we’re announcing that Figma has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Adobe. This has been in the works over the past few months and I’m so excited to finally share this news with the world.”
If you can’t beat them, buy them
Adobe is now set to acquire Figma at $20 billion. This acquisition deal comes in half cash and half in stock. Additionally, Adobe will also include 6 million additional restricted stock units granted to Figma’s CEO and employees that will vest over four years subsequent to closing.
According to a survey by CNBC, Microsoft employees among others prefer Figma to Adobe Suite products. The report indicates that Figma is being used by tens of thousands of employees inside Microsoft in their daily work. The cloud-based design platform enables multiple users to modify a design in real time. Non-editors can view designs and leave comments. Companies pay for Figma based on the number of editors they have for their files. This makes Figma one of the biggest rivals to Adobe, creating a necessity to eliminate Figma through acquisition.
Reactions from users and investors
Hours after the announcement by Dylan Field, both users and investors reacted on social media. Here are some of the reactions from the tech community.