On Adobe's Acquisition of Figma and the Mixed Feelings of the Market and Its Participants

News that Figma is being acquired by Adobe for $20 billion.. Figma's people are sharing very joyful news on the blog, but the users themselves are, through their communities, voicing concerns.. Will Figma become like XD.. will they be merged.. will Figma features not in XD be added to XD.. and so on.

*Figma blog
https://www.figma.com/blog/a-new-collaboration-with-adobe/

There are many similar cases (a bonanza for the insiders, but bitter for the users). One of the most notable: back in 2018, when IBM acquired Red Hat ($34B) and GitHub ($7.5B). Users voiced many concerns then, and in the end, those concerns became reality.

This pattern of forming an effective monopoly through acquisitions is not just an overseas phenomenon. Look at Korean delivery apps or shopping apps — from the consumer perspective they look like competitors and are packaged as such, but behind the scenes they are often the same sister company.

Watching the sequence of planning and implementing an innovative product that solves user inconveniences, operating it very cheaply, and then — once many users are secured — selling it to a competitor at a high price, I found myself thinking this feels less like actualizing an idea from the start and more like founding a startup for a portfolio that will lead to employment. And watching users lament while, on the other hand, role-modeling and benchmarking and imitating that path, I think — maybe this is a globally universal and structural problem, or perhaps a basic pattern for surviving in participating markets.

Situations where success for a salaried person or a business owner becomes bitterness for users and the everyday lives they are part of, and the social/organizational structures and cultures that tolerate this..

Looking at the worldwide industry situation.. as someone personally pursuing "work" rather than "the market," it's a weekend morning of swallowing bitterness once again.