from Adobe site:
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/invrelations/adobeandmacromedia.html

Adobe and Macromedia

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq: ADBE) has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Macromedia (Nasdaq: MACR) in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $3.4 billion. Under the terms of the agreement, which has been approved by both boards of directors, Macromedia stockholders will receive, at a fixed exchange ratio, 0.69 shares of Adobe common stock for every share of Macromedia common stock in a tax-free exchange. Based on Adobe’s and Macromedia’s closing prices on Friday April 15, 2005, this represents a price of $41.86 per share of Macromedia common stock.

The combination of Adobe and Macromedia strengthens our mission of helping people and organizations communicate better. Through the combination of our powerful development, authoring and collaboration tools – and the complementary functionality of PDF and Flash – we have the opportunity to drive an industry-defining technology platform that delivers compelling, rich content and applications across a wide range of devices and operating systems.

By combining the passion and creativity of two leading-edge companies, we will continue driving innovations that are changing the ways people everywhere are experiencing and interacting with information.

I wonder what PDFs and Flash have in common...

I would have understood it if they would've said that Adobe and Macromedia have programs that basically do the same things.

another monopoly, great

Caught the news today as well!

That would make Adobe pretty much a monopoly in both web and print publishing software, the only major graphics program still being used is Quark, but it is also being pushed out by (the way better) InDesign.

I guess that Freehand will cease to exist, being replaced by Illustrator.

IMO, Quark shot itself in the foot with the OS9 - OS10 transition (mac), when they launched 5 to work only on 9 despite the fact that 10 was out, and 6 for 10, but down-saveable only to 5, which was then needed to go to 4...

I used to be a Quark fanatic, but am seriously considering switching to Indesign.

As for Illustrator/Freehand, I hope that if Freehand becomes obsolete, many of its functions will be taken up by Illustrator. (such as multiple pages and page set-ups per document.)

That's it! I'm totally against monopolies, so, from now on, I'll only use MS Paint.



Here's my entry for tomorrow's contest.

OK, maybe not. Maybe I'll continue using Photoshop a little. Can't wait to use Photoflash though!

Oh I hope they discontinue FreeHand! I used to love that application but it sucks now.

And... I hope they buy Quark next and just trash that nightmare!

corelDRAW - your CANADIAN choice!

careful, Rein, your maple leaf is showing...

Wow, I thought I was the only one who hated Quark . . .

Yeah Al I work in Packaging, where Quark has no real reason to be used.

But I still get art made in Illustrator that's placed in Quark to set one line of type!

ha! morons!

omg, tey couldn't set the type IN Illustrator?

Reminds me of this:

http://www.clientcopia.com

nothing surprises me anymore...

Oh God sage, thank you.