Since the online revolution began in the late nineties, convergence in delivering information is now a reality. Text, graphics, voice and video can now be delivered over a PC or mobile phone connected to the Internet. That is why the battle for web supremacy is heating up. The question is : Can the internet be controlled, dominated or monopolized by one single entity? Companies are trying actually, either by way of new offerings and services or through acquisitions and mergers.
Just recently, Adobe Systems announced an agreement with Macromedia to buy the later for $3.4 billion. The deal is an all-stock transaction under which Macromedia shareholders will receive 0.69 shares of Adobe common stock, which will mean that previous Macromedia shareholders will hold around 18 percent of the combined companies after the deal. In the combined company, Adobe's CEO Bruce Chizen will remain CEO and Shantanu Narayen will continue to be president and COO. Stephen Elop, president and CEO of Macromedia, will join Adobe as president of worldwide field operations.
Adobe Systems is the company responsible for softwares like : PhotoShop, Premier, Pagemaker, Acrobat, After Effects, Illustrator, Encore, Audition and a lot more. Macromedia on the other hand is the company responsible for softwares like : Dreamweaver, Freehand, Fireworks, ColdFusion, Director, AuthorWare, Flash and more. By just looking at their product portfolio, you can just imagine the power that this two companies has in the web development application and multimedia space.
The strength of Adobe is in graphics, video and business document software, while the strength of Macromedia is in web and application development. Currently, Portable Document Format (PDF) from Adobe is the web standard for creating and sharing electronic documents while Flash from Macromedia is the dominant web motion graphics application.
The challenge for Adobe is to create a total cross-functionality between Adobe and Macromedia products. Once achieved, we may be able to create a Flash animation using videos edited in Premiere, graphics elements created in Illustrator, or images prepared using Photoshop. We can also add some music edited using Audition, then combined it all and publish it into a web page created using ColdFusion and Dreamweaver. An ideal workflow that will allow users to create, manage and deliver a wide range of compelling content and applications from documents, images, audio and video. This will enable users to focus more on creativity than the software.
Another challenge is to make future Adobe/Macromedia products more affordable to the users. While it's true that their new offerings will be packed with functionality, the bottomline still is if users can afford them. Ease of use should be also be another consideration plus the new products should not be resource hungry that would require users to upgrade their current computer setup. Adobe should also keep in mind that they should not attempt to create their own file formats for selfish reasons but should have an open and web standard formats to facilitate the widespread use of their applications.
While there are other smaller applications offering the same, the strongest competition will still be coming from Microsoft. It was reported that Microsoft will be incorporating some digital imaging, personal web publishing tools and a graphics engine called Avalon into its much delayed next generation Windows system - Longhorn. A collision course is definitely in the making not only in terms of imaging and web or the so-called Internet 2, but also around the wireless world. With the unbelievable development happening in the mobile space, the company that can offer the best solution to enrich the mobile internet experience will have the advantage. Macromedia has its Flash Lite while Microsoft has it Windows Mobile.
When it comes to the enterprise market, Microsoft may have the edge in this arena today but this will not escape the watchful eye of Adobe.
Expect Adobe to come up with products that will enable users to create rich, interactive and personalized content that will be used for transactional systems. Chizen can't put it more appropriately when he said : "When I think about competitors, there's only one I really worry about - Microsoft is the competitor, and it's the one that keeps me up at night."
Having the two powerhouse competing against each other will keep the I.T. industry more and more exciting, not to mention more business for companies, developers and users. More innovations and offerings will definitely be provided on the table which will give consumers more options, more flexibility, more ideas, and most of all more power.
This marriage is a winning combination unless other uneeded objectives sets in. Both companies should agree to continue developing and combining the strengths of their products and never dwell on branding and control problems. Adobe Systems being the bigger company should just present its product roadmap and allow Macromedia to independently innovate by themselves to foster technology growth. Preventing Macromedia to do what it do best will signal the downfall of this merger. The ingredients to make this merger a success is now knocking at their doorstep, failing to make this work is all but Adobe/Macromedia's fault and own doing.
Like any other mergers, problems like culture fit, conflicting visions, merging channels, marketing strategies and positioning, will always exist. Anti-trust or unhealthy competition cases might be filed as well from competitors. But coming to terms to collaborate with each other than to compete is the right step to take in making Adobe/Macromedia the company to beat in the years to come.
One thing is for certain for us users : Information will become available in different forms, from different devices and from anywhere.
Am logging off for now. God Bless us all!!!
