Adobe buys Macromedia
It was just announced today that Adobe has bought Macromedia, for a whopping $3.4 billion. One of my friends sent me a link to a BBC article covering the story. Before I go on, let me prefix this by saying that I like the BBC, as it often gives a fresh and non-US-centric slant to world news. However, after reading the article about Adobe and Macromedia, I was quite disappointed. Here is a link to the story…
https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4456895.stm
I found it amusing how half the article is about Microsoft, as if they're even on the same playing field. Just so we've got things straight here people, it's Apple vs. Microsoft (and Apple is winning, incidentally). This article obviously was written by someone who has little understanding of such things. Acrobat interfaces with, not against, Microsoft Office.
If anything, they bought Macromedia to be able to own the rights to Flash / Dreamweaver / Fireworks (to name a few), which are for web-development and have nothing to do with MS Office. They should've been writing about Frontpage (Microsoft's web-dev software), but since all self-respecting web developers know that Frontpage outright stinks, Microsoft doesn't even belong in the article. For once, I'd like to read an article about technology that doesn't mention Microsoft, especially when it doesn't pertain to the bloated giant.
The real implications of this merger are that Photoshop and GoLive will probably get a whole lot better, as Adobe can now impliment elements of Fireworks and Dreamweaver. Basically, Adobe now owns the industry standards in graphics (both vector & photo), web-development (Dreamweaver, et. al.), and animation (with Flash). That's what the BBC article should've been about, had it not been written by a rookie.