Adobe Acquiring Macromedia on December 3, 2005

dennison_uy writes "Adobe Systems Incorporated and Macromedia, Inc. today announced they have either received or been notified they will receive all regulatory clearances necessary to complete Adobe's pending acquisition of Macromedia. The companies expect to close the transaction on December 3, 2005. Does this mean the end for Fireworks and Freehand?"

Macradobe

[Short Circuit]

We mustn't forget the Macradobe song [slashdot.org]!

To the tune of Yankee Doodle Went to London

Big Adobe went to town
Riding with great worry
"Microsoft might buy our foes
Goodness let us hurry"

Big Adobe, buy them out
Big Adobe dandy
Mind the lawsuits and the FUD
And with your cash be handy

Macromedia went to the web
With great Flash and vigour
Then Adobe said to them:
"We ownz you, start to quiver"

Big Adobe, buy them out
Get yourself a trophy
Buy a business out of fear
And call it Macradobe

All you geeks and all you nerds
Reading this here story
Remember what the Parent said
And call it Macradobe

The voice for all Australians....

[Paska]

Adobe Acquiring Macromedia on December 3, 2005

That's today you insenstive clod!

I for one live in the future, which puts December 3rd as, well, right now.

my hope is..

[nick-less]

Does this mean the end for Fireworks and Freehand?" ...it means the end of flash, but I know its just a dream.

Time to abandon Middle-Earth

[kahei]

...and retreat to the lands of Corel, where mighty Painter still blooms with the multicolored light of Fractal Design. There is nothing for us now in the lands of mortal applications.

Unless they buy Corel too and Painter dies. But surely the Valar would intervene in such a case. Boy, the Silmarillion really ought to address this sort of problem.

Re:The voice for all Australians....

[cosam]

Well, if they'd said today it'd imply yesterday, seeing as it's already tomorrow (today).

Re:The voice for all Australians....

[GoatMonkey2112]

Please stop sending us those Terminators. They're causing a lot of problems and they can't stop fate anyway.

Re:Imagine...

[rathehun]

While not exactly useful, it would be neat.

This is the kind of thinking that makes me want kill people.

Re:Too big?

[berbo]

All these corporate acquisitions have me worried.

This just in from Time-Warner-Phillip-Morris-General-Electric-Disney -CNN news:

consolidation is good!

Designers the world over wait with baited breath..

[monktus]

Does this mean the end for Fireworks and Freehand?

We can but hope.

Re:my hope is..

[Anonymous Coward]

I too dream of a world where the hungry are fed, wars come to an end and the developers of Flash have their heads on spikes. Until that happy day I can recommend http://www.flashswitch.com/ [flashswitch.com] for people who need to use IE and not punch their monitor.

so..

[Kuku_monroe]

"Does this mean the end for apps that take less than 2 minutes to boot?"

Re:Farewell Freehand, You'll be missed :(

[Anonymous Coward]

It would be a bummer if the code were accidentally leaked to the internet, wouldn't it.

Re:"Studio" Bundling?

[settsu]

Based on my daily experience and anti-user/useful corporate sh**-shoveling aside, I see the ideal "One Box Solution" (eventually) being along these lines:

-Dreamweaver
"GoLive was for web pages?? I thought it was for database management."

-InDesign
F***ing Quark, why won't you just die? Actually a version of Quark from 1996 is listed in the "Goodies" section of the install DVD. It's better than the last 2 versions and easily runs on a Palm Vx.

-Photoshop
Will now take an extra 45 seconds to load. Just becuase they can. Holding Shift while opening "About..." will reveal the dev team.

Mooning you.

With unwiped arses.

-Fireworks
Nothing can touch its JPEG efficiency, though the sooner JPEG is taken out to the shed and euthanized the better. Animated GIF support is secretly replaced by a fly swatter that shoots from the floor and slaps you when you try to select it.

-Illustrator
Totally reworked with the soul of Freehand; though it STILL will have sucky microscopic node/path editing. Again: becuase they can. CorelDraw will continue to be superior at path/curve manipulation, cheaper, and still completely ignored by "professionals."

-Adobe Type Manager
This priceless utility will be neutered by the removal of the few menus/functions it did have and the UI features replaced with ads for $400 "sunlight" lamps and $7000 "ergonomic" desk chairs.

MSRP & CDW price: $2999
MacWarehouse Price: $2994
Street and E-tailer Price: $1699
Amazon.com/CostCo Price: $197 w/Free Second Day Shipping

For $879 more ($96 on Amazon; no one else carries it), a Premium box will have Acrobat, Flash DevEd, and a Spanish Dubloon. Not becuase anyone SHOULD have to pay extra for any of those anymore, but becuase you can't NOT have them and be legit.