Adobe has lost interest in acquiring Figma. The company was willing to pay $20 billion to buy the product design startup, but regulatory watchdogs from the EU.
In a nutshell: Figma is a recently incorporated company providing a web-based interface design platform focusing on real-time collaboration. Adobe was pursuing an acquisition of its most intriguing competitors in years, but the attempt ultimately failed due to antitrust scrutiny in the Europe.
Adobe has lost interest in acquiring Figma. The company was willing to pay $20 billion to buy the product design startup, but regulatory watchdogs from the EU and UK opposed the deal. Antitrust laws are designed to preserve market competition, but Adobe said that the proposed remediations were unacceptable and “wholly disproportionate.”
Adobe and Figma negotiated the deal during the COVID-19 pandemic, significantly increasing worldwide technology and software investment. The potential deal was eventually announced in September 2022, revealing that Adobe was willing to pay 50 times Figma’s annual recurring revenue and double the company’s latest private funding round in 2021.
