Adobe Completes Acquisition of Macromedia...

 
Dec 09, 2005

by Judith Dinowitz

The news broke on Saturday, December 3, and Adobe posted the official announcement on their site on Monday, December 5. Adobe and Macromedia are finally one company, and we are no longer using Macromedia ColdFusion... We are now Adobe ColdFusion developers.

It sounds a little strange on my tongue, but so did the idea of being a "Macromedia ColdFusion developer" when Macromedia bought Allaire in March 2001. Four years later, I can say that that acquisition was good... Back then there were concerns expressed on the lists about Macromedia and the future of ColdFusion. There were growing pains, as the new company got used to the community and learned how to cater to developers as well as designers. While the road was not always smooth, in the end it was profitable, as proven by the ColdFusion sales figures that Ben Forta posted in May 2005.

Since the announcement on Saturday, we've already seen some special pricing bundles of joint Adobe and Macromedia products. (You might want to buy or upgrade your Studio 8 products now, as the introductory pricing ends on January 1st.)

We've also had an announcement that Adobe intends to lay off some employees. This is expected when two big companies become one and the resulting company has more staff than it needs. Who will stay and who will go? We'll find out on December 15th, when the company publishes its fourth quarter financial report.

Bruce Chizen, CEO of Adobe, did a Breeze recording where he basically said, "Yes, we acquired Macromedia. We have unlimited opportunity," but otherwise said nothing. Some people were upset that he didn't mention ColdFusion. That's okay -- He didn't mention anything except Flash and PDF, the company's biggest products, so don't worry! It's too early in the acquisition for them to really say anything, and what they're doing is making a big noise to show they're excited, and to get us excited. That, folks, is PR.

If you're curious to know what's happening with ColdFusion, the best place for you to go is to the interview that Simon Horwith, editor of CFDJ, did with Dave Mendels, Senior Vice President of Adobe's New Enterprise and Developer Solutions Business Unit. According to Mr. Mendels, Scorpio, the next version of ColdFusion, is still on track, and there are plans to put in integration between ColdFusion and Adobe LiveCycle.

You'll find some hints from Ben Watson, the Group Manager for Adobe?s Developer Relations Team, who waxes poetic about the acuisition in his blog entry, Adobe + Macromedia = (G) All of the above. He states that there are some great sample applications that the Adobe and Macromedia teams have been working on that tie their products together. More information will be available soon on Adobe's developer centers. At the end of his blog entry, he gives a multiple choice quiz:

Adobe+Macromedia = :
a) A sign of life for Web 2.0.
b) A truly everywhere client platform.
c) A real composite application development suite.
d) The beginning of the end of deployment-driven architectures.
e) One of the largest and fastest growing developer communities around.
f) A new face for Java.
g) A really cool bunch of awesome geekiness with all the requisite blinky lights and shiny knobs.

If you answered a resounding "Gee, yes, yes, yes" to all of the above, then you'd fit right in around here today.
I'm really not sure about D (what is Deployment-Driven Architecture, anyway?), but the rest of it sounds exciting. Especially the blinky lights and shiny knobs bit.

A fellow user group manager said something that I thought was very smart. He was particularly intrigued by choice F, "Adobe + Macromedia = A new face for Java," and he said that he was highly encouraged by the fact that an Adobe employee had mentioned ColdFusion and other products together after the close of the merger. He felt this was very good, and that this blog entry was more specific than most of the announcements that have come out so far.

I, too, am highly encouraged by this blog entry. Adobe is now in a position to do much more with ColdFusion than Macromedia was; they've got a lot more money and a lot more clout and personnel than Macromedia did. Hopefully, they'll take advantage of this position and we'll see the result in the next version of ColdFusion.

Here at House of Fusion, we've already started changing some of our resources to reflect the new reality. For example, we've started a new Adobe-Talk list that should provide a forum to discuss the buyout, fears, hopes and anything else related to Adobe. You can sign up to that list at http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/subscribe.cfm/forumid:52.

You'll be seeing more coverage of the new Adobe in Fusion Authority in the coming weeks. In the meantime, I'll end this article with a list of links from Adobe, Macromedia, and other sources that will give you lots of food for thought.

Adobe Completes Acquisition of Macromedia (December 5, 2005)

New Adobe Design, Web and Video Bundles Combine Latest Creative Software From Adobe and Macromedia (December 5, 2005)

David Mendels Interview on CFDJ

Change in Pricing and Policy

Adobe + Macromedia = (G) All of the above

Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen Breeze Recording on Closing of Acquisition

This page on Adobe's site makes use of Flash to post articles, two of which focus on combining AfterEffects and Flash.
Motion Design Gallery

Layoffs Pending After Adobe, Macromedia Merger (Infoworld, December 5, 2005)

Bye MM :( ::Welcome Adobe:: (CF-Talk List, December 8, 2005)

Note: In the article below, pay special attention to the question "Does Adobe plan to increase its focus on developers as a result of the acquisition?"
Adobe Completes Acquisition of Macromedia FAQ

Adobe Acquisition Page

New Company Profile

Fact Sheet

Senior Management Bios

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