European competition watchdogs crush Adobe's takeover of Figma, an application design business.
Adobe was planning the acquisition of the application design software Figma to the tune of $20 billion. This plan was quickly foiled by opposition from watchdogs, including the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). They ultimately found that the acquisition could seriously harm competition around product design, image editing and illustration, reducing competition in global markets for other creative design software. Whilst there does appear to have been the option to 'restructure' their filing, it was ultimately decided that any changes wouldn't 'preserve the benefits' of the transaction and Adobe will have to pay Figma a $1 billion pull-out fee that was set in writing around 15 months ago.
As you can imagine, Adobe are not happy with this outcome and have even accused the CMA of 'stifling innovation'.
Our feeling is that this will make other Tech Giants a little nervous around any future acquisitions of their own as monopolies in this space will clearly no longer be entertained.
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