EU joins menace to Adobe’s $20 Billion Figma acquisition with new probe

The European Union is launching an in-depth antitrust investigation into Adobe’s bid to amass product design platform Figma, warning that the deal might “cut back competitors within the world markets for the provision of interactive product design software program and for digital asset creation instruments.”

The Fee now has till December 14th to determine on the following steps. These may contain demanding remediations to approve the deal, block the merger from going forward solely, or give approval if the EU’s early considerations are proven to be groundless.

In a press launch, the European Fee outlined the transaction’s potential affect on the provision of interactive product design instruments and digital asset creation instruments as its main concern. The Fee will even be investigating if bundling Figma with Adobe’s Artistic Cloud suite has the potential to foreclose rival software program suppliers.

The EU Fee began assessing the deal again in February

Again in February, the Fee stated it could assess the acquisition following requests from at the least sixteen member states. Based mostly on info supplied by these nations, the Fee concluded that the transaction threatened to “considerably have an effect on competitors out there for interactive product design and whiteboarding software program.”

Adobe introduced that it was buying Figma for roughly $20 billion in September final yr. If permitted, it might surpass the $19 billion that Fb (now Meta) paid for Whatsapp in 2014. Adobe’s bid drew early criticism not solely as a result of Wall Road felt it was wildly overpriced, but additionally due to the similarity between Adobe’s personal product design platform, Adobe XD, and Figma’s extra well-liked service. Adobe began phasing XD out of basic availability after asserting the deal, however regulators are involved that giving Adobe management over one of many few options within the product design software program market might stifle competitors and innovation.

The merger can be being assessed within the US and the UK, with the latter escalating its investigation to the same “part two” probe on July thirteenth after Adobe and Figma didn’t supply cures to handle antitrust considerations. The UK probe has an extended statutory deadline of December twenty seventh, nevertheless it’s anybody’s guess which investigation will conclude first.

Adobe’s expectation of closing the Figma deal in 2023 continues to be doable, however the odds are stacked towards it with the addition of the EU probe.