Sources: Figma has met with banks in recent weeks to discuss an IPO that could come as soon as 2025; EU and US regulators stymied its $20B sale to Adobe in 2023
The may not get $20B in the IPO but they've avoided the inevitable enshitification an Adobe acquisition would have caused.
Context & Ripple Effects
The abandoned Adobe transaction had already been delayed by regulatory challenges, leaving Figma to pursue liquidity independently. A 2024 employee and early-investor tender offer provided a private-market valuation reference point before an eventual public-market process.
This report marks the shift from a blocked strategic exit to IPO preparation; subsequent coverage records Figma's confidential US IPO filing, making the bank discussions an early step in that transition.
First-order effects
- Figma begins positioning for a public listing rather than a sale to Adobe, creating a potential new route to capital and liquidity for its shareholders.
- Adobe remains without the design-platform asset it sought to acquire and must compete with Figma as an independent company.
Second-order effects
- An IPO process forces investors to assess Figma on standalone operating and growth prospects, rather than against the $20B strategic-sale benchmark.
- The failed deal strengthens the practical importance of regulatory review in large software acquisitions: buyers and targets must account for a prolonged or unsuccessful approval process when weighing a sale.
Third-order effects
- If more blocked software combinations are followed by IPOs, public markets may become a more important alternative exit path for venture-backed application companies.
- The case points to a market structure in which regulators can preserve independent competitors, while shifting the financing and execution burden of independence onto the company and public investors.
The trend: Scrutiny of major platform acquisitions is making standalone public listings a more consequential alternative to strategic exits for high-value software companies.