On September 15, Adobe announced what is officially the largest acquisition in the company’s history.
Figma, the web’s fastest-growing design collaboration tool, is becoming a member of the Adobe family for a whopping $20 billion in cash and stocks.
Figma is joining Adobe in its pursuit of creative excellence, expanding accessibility and education opportunities for designers.
According to the terms of the agreement, Figma will retain its operational autonomy.
The current CEO and co-founder of Figma, Dylan Field, will remain in his position and report only to David Wadhwani, president of Adobe’s digital media business.
The rest of the Figma team will communicate with Field, independent of Adobe’s direct involvement. In addition to staying autonomous, Figma also gets to remain free for educational purposes.
“Figma’s education offering was a critical part of our conversations and Adobe is completely aligned on growing the number of designers/developers/creatives in the world,” Field stated in a blog post.
Reviewing Adobe's Portfolio Expansion
For Adobe, the latest acquisition means access to the top-of-the-line collaboration workflow platform. The new asset will expand Adobe’s product portfolio and empower the rapid growth of both Adobe and Figma.
“The combination of Adobe and Figma is transformational and will accelerate our vision for collaborative creativity,” Chairman and CEO of Adobe Shantanu Narayen said.
Adobe and Figma share a penchant for making the web a more creative, collaborative place.
Together, they have the power to redefine the future of work and creativity, relying on each other’s strengths to innovate and share their collective knowledge with designers from the world over.
According to Field, Figma will benefit from Adobe’s technology and resources, as well as its place of honor in the creative space. By incorporating Adobe’s expertise in imaging, photography, illustration, video, 3D, and font, Figma will have all the necessary prerequisites to maintain its soaring success.
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What This Means for Adobe XD Remains Unclear
It’s not clear what this means for Adobe XD, the company’s collaboration tool that never rose to Figma’s level of success and fame. Users of these web-based collaboration tools are uncertain about what the future holds for them, but for now, it seems like not much is going to change.
“Our Friends of Figma program will continue spreading to new local communities,” Field said., addressing some of the concerns about Figma’s pricing, one of its main advantages over Adobe XD.
“Recognizing that we are in an unpredictable, inflationary environment, we currently have no plan to change Figma’s pricing,” he added.
Figma plans on leveraging access to Adobe’s cutting-edge tech to skyrocket its offering, namely Figma Design, FigJam, and the Figma platform itself. The company’s elaborate strategy for the future seems to reinforce the claims that Figma will remain autonomous.
The collaboration between Adobe and Figma has the potential to benefit all stakeholders in the product design process, from web designers to developers and product managers.
