Adobe plans to buy UI design and prototyping tool Figma for ~$20B, half cash and half stock; CEO Dylan Field will continue to lead Figma; ADBE closed down 16.8%
Today, we're announcing that Figma has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Adobe. TechCrunch : After the Figma-Adobe deal, which design startups are acquisition targets? Wall Street Journal : Adobe to Buy Collaboration-Software Company Figma for About $20 Billion Tom Warren / The Verge : Adobe to acquire Figma in a deal worth $20 billion Sarah Roach / Protocol : California takes a stand on kids' privacy Alex Gatewood / KnowTechie : What is Figma? — If you've spent any time on Twitter in the last few days … Eduard Kovacs / SecurityWeek : Adobe Creates Role of Chief Cybersecurity Legal Officer Sheryl Estrada / Fortune : Adobe's $20 billion deal to acquire Figma leaves some skeptical Timi Odueso / TechCabal : 👨🏿🚀TechCabal Daily - Uber's hurdles in Kenya Ruby Helyer / MUO : Adobe Is Acquiring Figma: What Does This Mean for Users? Sheetal Bhalerao / Trak.in : Adobe Spends Rs 1.6 Lakh Crore To Buy Figma; Stocks Tumble 16% As Investors Are Upset Ari Levy / CNBC : $20 billion Figma deal is a historic coup for startup investors in an otherwise miserable year Melinda Wyers / Space Among The Clouds : Ch-ch-ch-ch changes — So I renamed the blog because, well, I wasn't using it for a blog as much as I intended. John Gruber / Daring Fireball : Adobe to Acquire Figma for $20 Billion Tweets: Dylan Field / @zoink : THREAD: This morning we're announcing that @Figma has entered into an agreement to be acquired by @Adobe ! More information here: https://figma.com/... (1/9) Kate Conger / @kateconger : how it started / how it's going https://twitter.com/... Aaron Levie / @levie : Figma is now $20B proof that if people say “that market has already been solved”, then they're probably wrong. Nathan Baschez / @nbashaw : Figma will be Adobe's InstagramJosh Miller / @joshm : The tech industry is generally lacking CEOs who are fantastic role models. I'm most happy for the @figma acquisition because it means the next generation of founders will look at @zoink and conclude: “I can be a kind, humble, generous human and still win” 💙💙💙 Rolfe Winkler / @rolfewinkler : What investors first paid for @Figma, which @adobe buying for ~$40.20 per share: $0.088: @dannyrimer/@IndexVentures, @semil, Jacobsen/OATV A $0.199: @johnolilly/@GreylockVC B $0.332: @mamoonha/@kleinerperkins C $1.098: @andrew__reed/@sequoia D $4.619: Peter Levine/@a16z Juan / @juanbuis : figma: we are the fun, independent way to design :) adobe: what about $20,000,000,000 figma: ok fine @adobe : We're excited to share our intent to acquire @Figma. Together, we will usher in a new era of collaborative creativity. Key info: https://www.adobe.com/... https://twitter.com/... @litcapital : Capitalism 101 https://twitter.com/... @semil : YouTube : Google Instagram : Facebook Figma : Adobe Kyle Harrison / @kwharrison13 : As fascinating as the news of Figma + Adobe is? Also fascinating to see @penpotapp (open source Figma) top Hacker News. Platform risk is a real thing. https://news.ycombinator.com/ https://twitter.com/... Gergely Orosz / @gergelyorosz : 2021 was the year when startups raising money did it on valuations that have almost all collapsed by now. Figma raised at a ~$10B valuation then. The fact that they are selling to Adobe for close to double is nothing short of remarkable (also shows Adobe desperately needs Figma) https://twitter.com/... Tom Warren / @tomwarren : big news, Adobe will reportedly acquire Figma in a deal worth around $20 billion. Figma is used widely inside Microsoft by thousands of designers and developers, and has been competing heavily with Adobe XD in recent years https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/... John Lilly / @johnolilly : I am beyond proud of the Figma team for what they've done and what's to come. But also for the way they've done it, and will continue to do it, with care and generosity and joy. I'm full of admiration for @zoink and the team, and excited for what's ahead. https://greylock.com/... Luke Kanies / @lkanies : This #figma acquisition is exactly the kind of thing the @FTC should be stopping. Dogma has been the first real challenge to adobe in decades. This is worse for everyone's customers Scott Willis / @scottw_grizzle : $ADBE down 8% pre-mkt on news it's buying Figma is like $META being down 8% after buying Instagram A huge win long term and a buying opportunity. @ravisutanjani : Breaking - Adobe is buying online design startup Figma in a deal valued at about $20 Billion 📈🚀 That would be the biggest ever takeover of a private software company. If we recall WhatsApp buyout by Meta was valued at $19 Billion. Charles Patterson / @charlespattson : Who did this!? 😂 https://twitter.com/... Alex Medick / @ajmedick : Meta tries to acquire a co: monopolistic giants Adobe acquires another competitor: good business Makes no sense. @balamobi : @Ravisutanjani LinkedIn was acquired at $26 B!(when you compare WhatsApp with Figma) Mamoon Hamid / @mamoonha : Congratulations @figma and @zoink on the largest acquisition of a private tech company ever. @kleinerperkins couldn't be more proud of the team + look forward to what you all accomplish as part of the @Adobe family. Reid Hoffman / @reidhoffman : Amazing work by @zoink, @figma and team, my partner @johnolilly. It's such an honor to work with these amazing folks. And the journey continues, including of course, with @dwadhwani. https://greylock.com/... Anthony DeRosa / @anthony : Four years ago, Dylan Field was living in a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco's gritty Mission District, where he would stop for a $1 cup of coffee on his way to work. Yesterday, he sold his company for $20 billion https://www.wsj.com/... via @WSJ @darkviperau : Hard to have competition in markets when entities are large enough that they can buy anyone they wish for the coins they have in their couch cushions. Success is a race to see who can sell themselves fastest to the few dozen entities that own everything. https://twitter.com/... Mikaël Dufresne / @purplemikey : Meta wants to buy Supernatural. A small indie studio doing a niche VR game. People go crazy about it... Adobe keeps buying every single design software that exist... People don't care. They want to be angry at Mighty Zuck. Not scary Adobe. 🥱 Tim Sweeney / @timsweeneyepic : @zoink ... Feels like Apple “acquiring” Next. The merger agreement says one thing, but who's really wearing the pants here? Pete Skomoroch / @peteskomoroch : Dylan was my intern in 2010, we kept in touch as friends, and years later I was able to invest in @figma's seed and series A rounds. After a decade of tireless work by the Figma team, today the result is the largest acquisition of a private tech company. Congrats @zoink & team! https://twitter.com/... Josh Pigford / @shpigford : Everybody acting like they'd turn down $20,000,000,000. @greylockvc : 1/ Achievement unlocked: multiplayer design. Congrats to @Figma and @Adobe on an incredible new chapter together. @GreylockVC venture partner @johnolilly shares his reflections on partnering with Figma, starting at series A in 2014: https://greylock.com/... Kate Clark / @kateclarktweets : LinkedIn's Jeff Weiner invested in Figma's seed round in 2013. His 2.2% stake is worth $440 million today. https://www.theinformation.com/ ... Kate Clark / @kateclarktweets : Figma's $20 billion sale—the largest deal for a private tech company at the time of the announcement—is delivering MASSIVE returns to several VC firms. Index: $2.6 billion Greylock: $2.6 billion Kleiner: $2.1 billion Sequoia: $1.2 billion and more https://www.theinformation.com/ ... Jennifer Daniel / @jenniferdaniel : Apropos of absolutely nothing ... What are some good examples of a company that was acquired by a bigger one and the acquired company meaningfully changed the bigger company's culture and priorities? You know, instead of just getting absorbed into the Borg. Katie Roof / @katie_roof : For close to $20n, largest takeover of a private software company ever. 🍨 https://twitter.com/... Tanay Jaipuria / @tanayj : Adobe's acquisition of Figma is one of the largest acquisitions in software. 1. Dell buying EMC for $67B 2. IBM buying Red Hat for $34B 3. Salesforce buying Slack for $27B 4. Microsoft buying LinkedIn for $26B 5. Meta buying WhatsApp for $22B 6. Adobe buying Figma for $20B Erica Joy / @ericajoy : tis the (financial) season. https://twitter.com/... Cynthia Johnson / @cynthialive : Nice work @Adobe ! https://techcrunch.com/... Simon Bisson / @sbisson : A logical exit for Figma, but oh boy, the design community is not going to be happy. https://twitter.com/... @kenneynl : Remember to support independent software developers and/or open source software to stop this from happening. https://twitter.com/... @leyeconnect : In context cracked Figma app will become a thing. Jamin Ball / @jaminball : Congrats to @figma! Amazing outcome for one of the best software companies out there. This is stale, but I wrote a bit about what makes them so special in early 2021: https://cloudedjudgement.substack.com/ ... Joel Califa / @notdetails : Lots of FUD around the Figma acquisition. Very similar to the reaction when Microsoft acquired GitHub—clippy memes and all. Just a reminder that that turned out fine and even led to some great innovation. Adobe needs to respond by building trust. Hope they do. George Kedenburg III / @gk3 : real take: i'm sure the extra resources will make figma a lot better in the short term long term, who knows? it might slowly degrade to be another adobe product that we all just put up with because its good enough or it might just be the injection of new perspectives adobe needs Tom Warren / @tomwarren : I love Adobe apps and I use them every day, but damn the Adobe CC app is like malware on Windows. It spawns so many processes and fills up the task scheduler and is generally annoying DRM. I hope Figma can drag Adobe into the 21st century 🙏 @mrdoob : I hope this is the last back stabbing designers need to really start caring about open source options. @stammy : the part of the $20B @figma acquisition that i'm most excited for is that it will accelerate @zoink's personal angel investing. dylan has a knack for identifying & supporting founders and startups. he's in so many deals. this couldn't have happened to a nicer guy Tune / @cartunenetwerk : I'm weak at Adobe buying Figma. Whole business models and exits be to just annoy big bruh until they gotta deal with you. Balaji Srinivasan / @balajis : The Thiel Fellowship was attacked. Denounced. Vilified. Yet it somehow found the founders of Ethereum, Figma, and more. It proved its point. Some don't need college. Now, the fellowship's cofounder tells you just how they proved the establishment wrong. https://marginalrevolution.com/ ... Ruben Harris / @rubenharris : Figma is only 10 years old. $20 billion exit. Start thinking in decades. The days are long, but the decades are short. Also, @zoink is a Thiel Fellow (college dropout). Skills > Degrees. https://twitter.com/... @rga : “How do I make sense of this? I'm confused.” — me reacting to the news that Adobe paid $20 billion for Figma. Also me opening a Figma file. Hyam / @hyumankind : Adobe is so threatened by @Figma, it was a losing game for them. Acquisitions are where good things go to die. Grand sad. https://twitter.com/... Gergely Orosz / @gergelyorosz : Figma sold for how much Cloudflare is worth on the public market today ($20B). Cloudflare! Financially, this is an incredible feat and huge success for the team. And Figma is a for-profit business. Well, they made their profit. Nikita Bier / @nikitabier : I know everyone is upset about the Figma acquisition. But just think about how many jets the VCs can buy now. @jevon : They spent almost 4 years building Figma before releasing it. It's like the opposite of everything every startup is taught. Gergely Orosz / @gergelyorosz : For those saying they are disappointed that Figma sold for ~$20B vs waiting to go public. Public companies worth less than this: - Box $3.8B - Dropbox $8B - Etsy $14B - Twilio $14B - Pinterest $16B - Coinbase $17B - Expedia $17B - Snap: $19.4B - Spotify $19.6B I say good choice. https://t.co/Y5HqYoV08t Richard MacManus / @ricmac : There's a disturbance in the web standards force. The creator of @threejs doesn't approve of Figma's decision... https://twitter.com/... @mrdoob : Sell out https://twitter.com/... Wendy Johansson / @uxwendy : I'm very excited to hear the Figma acquisition news this morning! Startup employees often get a windfall 💰 when big moves like this happen. In the coming years (hold for those long-term gains taxes, Figma employees!), we should see two design-focused impacts coming from this 🧵 https://twitter.com/... @leeloowrites : If you're missing how Figma helped level the playing field for designers around the world, then your mindset is not as inclusive as you think it is. It may not change immediately, but you don't spend 20b to keep a product free and open. Katie Roof / @katie_roof : Many tech companies could only dream of selling for last year's valuation right now. Figma sold for double https://twitter.com/... Jakub / @alurdesign : 🧵 I post pretty rarely nowadays but I am just so *disappointed* by this. I've been a loyal Figma user for the past few years and all of the designs on my profile were made using this tool. [1/4] https://twitter.com/... @om : “Adobe is deeply committed to keeping Figma operating autonomously and I will continue to serve as CEO, reporting to David Wadhwani.” @zoink on @figma blog. That's good because Adobe can't help itself. Everything inside is built from the view of past. I hope they don't ruin it. @om : Adobe buying @figma for $20 billion is a tactical admission of its inabilities as a company to create cloud native experiences. It is desperately trying to find a way ahead out of its desktop web. A freight train aka AI will hit desktop Adobe. Figma is a good near term hedge! Mamoon Hamid / @mamoonha : Quick story: @zoink became part of the @KleinerPerkins family as a member of the inaugural @kp_fellows class more than a decade ago. While enrolled as an undergrad at Brown, a summer as a KP Fellow with Flipboard sparked his passion for product design. https://twitter.com/... @hunterwalk : Great, now I have to meet with a bunch of founders telling me they deserve Figma's 50x revenue multiple.... Oliver Reichenstein / @reichenstein : Big tech throws around these big Billion numbers like it's nothing. 10 Billion here, 20 Billion there... 20 Billion for a tech startup doesn't sound crazy at all. But a design tool doesn't have the same scale as Insta or TikTok. It won't make big waves and affect everyone. Oliver Reichenstein / @reichenstein : It's not like a lot of designers haven't heard of Figma. Every designer knows Figma by now. We're not talking about a new Amazon with massive growth potential. Adobe's management has calculated that they can turn a profit on this. And they're probably right. I can't see how. Oliver Reichenstein / @reichenstein : I know that at this dimension the laws of gravitation do not apply and it's all about market dominance and somehow things will probably work out. But calculate this with indie glasses. 20B is 400 times Figma's yearly revenue. And the number of designers is limited. Joseph / @joepwilliams31 : Adobe doesn't have a ... stellar reputation of doing this well: https://www.cnbc.com/... “Adobe said it will integrate some of the features from its other products, such as illustration, photography and video technology, into Figma's platform.” Renee DiResta / @noupside : So impressed by everything @zoink and team have accomplished over the years. ❤️ https://twitter.com/... Oliver Reichenstein / @reichenstein : It's intriguing for me that in big business, you can buy a company that makes 51M per year for 20 Billion when you make 16 Billion in yearly revenue. Scaled down to our mortal dimensions, that would make absolutely no sense. https://news.adobe.com/... Malcolm Harris / @bigmeaninternet : Now they gotta decide if they're gonna pay out of their pocket or borrow the money and use cash on hand to buy their own dip. My figurative bet is on the second 🤷♂️ https://www.bloomberg.com/... Ashley Mayer / @ashleymayer : Big welcome to a new class of angel investors!! Your timing is excellent. https://twitter.com/... @hunterwalk : “What percent of our market cap do we need to spend to protect the rest of it?” That's how prices get calculated on deals like this. https://twitter.com/... @rayno : Deal of the day. If the numbers are right it's buying it at like 50X current ARR! @Adobe to acquire design platform @figma for $20 billion https://www.cnbc.com/... Chris Messina / @chrismessina : I remember what a game changer @figma's launch was... https://twitter.com/...
THREAD: This morning we're announcing that @Figma has entered into an agreement to be acquired by @Adobe ! More information here: https://figma.com/... (1/9)
The tech industry is generally lacking CEOs who are fantastic role models. I'm most happy for the @figma acquisition because it means the next generation of founders will look at @zoink and conclude: “I can be a kind, humble, generous human and still win” 💙💙💙
What investors first paid for @Figma, which @adobe buying for ~$40.20 per share: $0.088: @dannyrimer/@IndexVentures, @semil, Jacobsen/OATV A $0.199: @johnolilly/@GreylockVC B $0.332: @mamoonha/@kleinerperkins C $1.098: @andrew__reed/@sequoia D $4.619: Peter Levine/@a16z
Four years ago, Dylan Field was living in a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco's gritty Mission District, where he would stop for a $1 cup of coffee on his way to work. Yesterday, he sold his company for $20 billion https://www.wsj.com/... via @WSJ
As fascinating as the news of Figma + Adobe is? Also fascinating to see @penpotapp (open source Figma) top Hacker News. Platform risk is a real thing. https://news.ycombinator.com/ https://twitter.com/...
2021 was the year when startups raising money did it on valuations that have almost all collapsed by now. Figma raised at a ~$10B valuation then. The fact that they are selling to Adobe for close to double is nothing short of remarkable (also shows Adobe desperately needs Figma) …
big news, Adobe will reportedly acquire Figma in a deal worth around $20 billion. Figma is used widely inside Microsoft by thousands of designers and developers, and has been competing heavily with Adobe XD in recent years https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...
We're excited to share our intent to acquire @Figma. Together, we will usher in a new era of collaborative creativity. Key info: https://www.adobe.com/... https://twitter.com/...
I am beyond proud of the Figma team for what they've done and what's to come. But also for the way they've done it, and will continue to do it, with care and generosity and joy. I'm full of admiration for @zoink and the team, and excited for what's ahead. https://greylock.com/...
1/ Achievement unlocked: multiplayer design. Congrats to @Figma and @Adobe on an incredible new chapter together. @GreylockVC venture partner @johnolilly shares his reflections on partnering with Figma, starting at series A in 2014: https://greylock.com/...
This #figma acquisition is exactly the kind of thing the @FTC should be stopping. Dogma has been the first real challenge to adobe in decades. This is worse for everyone's customers
Breaking - Adobe is buying online design startup Figma in a deal valued at about $20 Billion 📈🚀 That would be the biggest ever takeover of a private software company. If we recall WhatsApp buyout by Meta was valued at $19 Billion.
Figma's $20 billion sale—the largest deal for a private tech company at the time of the announcement—is delivering MASSIVE returns to several VC firms. Index: $2.6 billion Greylock: $2.6 billion Kleiner: $2.1 billion Sequoia: $1.2 billion and more https://www.theinformation.com/ …
Amazing work by @zoink, @figma and team, my partner @johnolilly. It's such an honor to work with these amazing folks. And the journey continues, including of course, with @dwadhwani. https://greylock.com/...
Apropos of absolutely nothing ... What are some good examples of a company that was acquired by a bigger one and the acquired company meaningfully changed the bigger company's culture and priorities? You know, instead of just getting absorbed into the Borg.
Hard to have competition in markets when entities are large enough that they can buy anyone they wish for the coins they have in their couch cushions. Success is a race to see who can sell themselves fastest to the few dozen entities that own everything. https://twitter.com/...
Meta wants to buy Supernatural. A small indie studio doing a niche VR game. People go crazy about it... Adobe keeps buying every single design software that exist... People don't care. They want to be angry at Mighty Zuck. Not scary Adobe. 🥱
Dylan was my intern in 2010, we kept in touch as friends, and years later I was able to invest in @figma's seed and series A rounds. After a decade of tireless work by the Figma team, today the result is the largest acquisition of a private tech company. Congrats @zoink & team! h…
Adobe's acquisition of Figma is one of the largest acquisitions in software. 1. Dell buying EMC for $67B 2. IBM buying Red Hat for $34B 3. Salesforce buying Slack for $27B 4. Microsoft buying LinkedIn for $26B 5. Meta buying WhatsApp for $22B 6. Adobe buying Figma for $20B
Congrats to @figma! Amazing outcome for one of the best software companies out there. This is stale, but I wrote a bit about what makes them so special in early 2021: https://cloudedjudgement.substack.com/ ...
Lots of FUD around the Figma acquisition. Very similar to the reaction when Microsoft acquired GitHub—clippy memes and all. Just a reminder that that turned out fine and even led to some great innovation. Adobe needs to respond by building trust. Hope they do.
real take: i'm sure the extra resources will make figma a lot better in the short term long term, who knows? it might slowly degrade to be another adobe product that we all just put up with because its good enough or it might just be the injection of new perspectives adobe needs
I love Adobe apps and I use them every day, but damn the Adobe CC app is like malware on Windows. It spawns so many processes and fills up the task scheduler and is generally annoying DRM. I hope Figma can drag Adobe into the 21st century 🙏
the part of the $20B @figma acquisition that i'm most excited for is that it will accelerate @zoink's personal angel investing. dylan has a knack for identifying & supporting founders and startups. he's in so many deals. this couldn't have happened to a nicer guy
The Thiel Fellowship was attacked. Denounced. Vilified. Yet it somehow found the founders of Ethereum, Figma, and more. It proved its point. Some don't need college. Now, the fellowship's cofounder tells you just how they proved the establishment wrong. https://marginalrevolution…
Figma is only 10 years old. $20 billion exit. Start thinking in decades. The days are long, but the decades are short. Also, @zoink is a Thiel Fellow (college dropout). Skills > Degrees. https://twitter.com/...
Figma sold for how much Cloudflare is worth on the public market today ($20B). Cloudflare! Financially, this is an incredible feat and huge success for the team. And Figma is a for-profit business. Well, they made their profit.
For those saying they are disappointed that Figma sold for ~$20B vs waiting to go public. Public companies worth less than this: - Box $3.8B - Dropbox $8B - Etsy $14B - Twilio $14B - Pinterest $16B - Coinbase $17B - Expedia $17B - Snap: $19.4B - Spotify $19.6B I say good choice. …
Congratulations @figma and @zoink on the largest acquisition of a private tech company ever. @kleinerperkins couldn't be more proud of the team + look forward to what you all accomplish as part of the @Adobe family.
I'm very excited to hear the Figma acquisition news this morning! Startup employees often get a windfall 💰 when big moves like this happen. In the coming years (hold for those long-term gains taxes, Figma employees!), we should see two design-focused impacts coming from this 🧵 ht…
If you're missing how Figma helped level the playing field for designers around the world, then your mindset is not as inclusive as you think it is. It may not change immediately, but you don't spend 20b to keep a product free and open.
🧵 I post pretty rarely nowadays but I am just so *disappointed* by this. I've been a loyal Figma user for the past few years and all of the designs on my profile were made using this tool. [1/4] https://twitter.com/...
“Adobe is deeply committed to keeping Figma operating autonomously and I will continue to serve as CEO, reporting to David Wadhwani.” @zoink on @figma blog. That's good because Adobe can't help itself. Everything inside is built from the view of past. I hope they don't ruin it.
Adobe buying @figma for $20 billion is a tactical admission of its inabilities as a company to create cloud native experiences. It is desperately trying to find a way ahead out of its desktop web. A freight train aka AI will hit desktop Adobe. Figma is a good near term hedge!
Quick story: @zoink became part of the @KleinerPerkins family as a member of the inaugural @kp_fellows class more than a decade ago. While enrolled as an undergrad at Brown, a summer as a KP Fellow with Flipboard sparked his passion for product design. https://twitter.com/...
Big tech throws around these big Billion numbers like it's nothing. 10 Billion here, 20 Billion there... 20 Billion for a tech startup doesn't sound crazy at all. But a design tool doesn't have the same scale as Insta or TikTok. It won't make big waves and affect everyone.
It's not like a lot of designers haven't heard of Figma. Every designer knows Figma by now. We're not talking about a new Amazon with massive growth potential. Adobe's management has calculated that they can turn a profit on this. And they're probably right. I can't see how.
I know that at this dimension the laws of gravitation do not apply and it's all about market dominance and somehow things will probably work out. But calculate this with indie glasses. 20B is 400 times Figma's yearly revenue. And the number of designers is limited.
Adobe doesn't have a ... stellar reputation of doing this well: https://www.cnbc.com/... “Adobe said it will integrate some of the features from its other products, such as illustration, photography and video technology, into Figma's platform.”
It's intriguing for me that in big business, you can buy a company that makes 51M per year for 20 Billion when you make 16 Billion in yearly revenue. Scaled down to our mortal dimensions, that would make absolutely no sense. https://news.adobe.com/...
Now they gotta decide if they're gonna pay out of their pocket or borrow the money and use cash on hand to buy their own dip. My figurative bet is on the second 🤷♂️ https://www.bloomberg.com/...
“What percent of our market cap do we need to spend to protect the rest of it?” That's how prices get calculated on deals like this. https://twitter.com/...
Deal of the day. If the numbers are right it's buying it at like 50X current ARR! @Adobe to acquire design platform @figma for $20 billion https://www.cnbc.com/...