Adobe to buy Macromedia !?!

Imagine my shock this morning at seeing the headlines "Adobe Buys Macromedia in $3.4B Stock Deal"

Clearly its too early to tell the what this merger will mean to the two companies and their product lines, and there are lots of things to happen yet, including regulatory approval for the merger, but if all stays on schedule, this could be a done deal by the time Max rolls around.  Invariably, I'll be posting more on this as more information becomes available.

I've had several folks ask me my opinion on this merger, and heres a quick summary of my thoughts:

• This has the potential to be a great thing.  Both MM and Adobe have a solid set of products, largely aimed at two different spaces.  There is little direct competition in the products (I'm glad I haven't tied any of my business to Freehand or Fireworks though), and between the two, there is great support for web and print media.
• I suspect the primary purpose of the acquisition was the Flash Player.  I wouldn't be surprised to see Adobe even further embrace the Flash player as a platform for application development.  Don't be surprised if they are positioning MXML as a better and cross platform alternative to the XAML initiative from Microsoft.
• Ive not a clue what they intend to do with the ColdFusion and JRun product line.  I'd expect they would hold on to JRun, as it powers so many other MM tools.  I sincerely hope that they remain dedicated to further CF development, and given my understanding of CF sales in the 1st Quarter this year, it seems like a sound business decision.

tags: coldfusion  flash  flex  

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