Adobe tumbles after deal to buy Figma for about US$20B
BNN Bloomberg
Adobe agreed to buy software design startup Figma in a deal valued at about US$20 billion in a bid to expand its suite of creative tools for professionals.
The deal announced by Adobe, which is a mix of half cash and half stock, confirms an earlier Bloomberg report and would mark the biggest ever takeover of a private software company, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It’s also Adobe’s biggest acquisition and the market found the deal expensive, sending shares to their steepest single-day decline since 2010.
Figma, which allows customers to collaborate on software as they build it, saw demand jump during the pandemic while more people worked remotely. The company expanded its customer base in recent years from software designers at big companies like Airbnb Inc., Google, Herman Miller and Kimberly-Clark Corp. -- to also include individuals building lightweight games, maps and presentations. It has also attracted a loyal student following.
The combination benefits “literally anybody who is a knowledge worker,” said Adobe Chief Executive Officer Shantanu Narayen, in an interview.
