Adobe announced Monday that it entered an agreement to acquire Macromedia for about $3.4 billion in stock. The companies will

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[Learning Community Group's Research Network :: Main Page] Despite some redundancy and competing products - think of PDF and FlashPaper, or GoLive and Dreamweaver - Macromedia clearly enhances Adobe's publishing and developer portfolio with products such as Flash, Director, ColdFusion, Authorware, and RoboHelp among others. In a statement released by the two firms, Adobe says it will leverage combined software solutions to target enterprise and mobile segments - a strategy that has been actively pursued by Macromedia for about 18 months with the enterprise communication and presentation platform Breeze as well as Flash Lite, the mobile version of the firm's animation package.

Some slightly related from Technorati and Google.

[Malice in Wonderland] Bah.: Not impressed by the news this morning about Adobe buying Macromedia. Adobe, although Photoshop is my life, still is too deeply rooted in print. Macromedia has always been about the web. Although I hand code, so I suppose it shouldn't matter too much, I hate the thought of Adobe bastardising or crippling the only decent WYSIWYG editor out there.

[Josh Smith's blog] Another bit o'Geek News: "Customers are calling for integrated software solutions that enable them to create, manage and deliver a wide range of compelling content and applications - from documents and images to audio and video," said Bruce Chizen, chief executive officer of Adobe. "By combining our powerful development, authoring and collaboration software - along with the complementary functionality of PDF and Flash - Adobe has the opportunity to bring this vision to life with an industry-defining technology platform."

[ContentSutra :: Main Page] Adobe To Buy Macromedia's Bangalore Development Centre: The Economic Times: As global techies consolidate, they are leaving a trail of mergers in India too. Close on the heels of Oracle buying Hexaware and Convansys development centres, the $1.7 billion-Adobe is now acquiring Macromedia’s Bangalore-based development centre. Macromedia’s 8.1 % stake in Mumbai-based mobile gaming company Indiagames is also expected to move to Adobe India..

[geek*muffin] A 'warm' welcome home (auuugh!): Permalink Adobe buys MacromediaAdobe bought Macromedia yesterday for 3.4 billion dollars. I... of the market. I like Macromedia for their new media edge, I like Adobe for their more traditional... (trusted, safety-blankie) Macromedia programs - Dreamweaver, Flash and Director. Jesus, the company

Mike Chambers: Macromedia + Adobe: Words such as ï¿½expect,ï¿½ ï¿½estimate,ï¿½ ï¿½project,ï¿½ ï¿½budget,ï¿½ ï¿½forecast,ï¿½ ï¿½anticipate,ï¿½ ï¿½intend,ï¿½ ï¿½plan,ï¿½ ï¿½may,ï¿½ ï¿½will,ï¿½ ï¿½could,ï¿½ ï¿½should,ï¿½ ï¿½believes,ï¿½ ï¿½predicts,ï¿½ ï¿½potenï¿½tial,ï¿½ ï¿½continue,ï¿½ and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this document include, without limitation, forecasts of market growth, future revenue, benefits of the proposed merger, expectations that the merger will be accretive to Adobe's results, future expectations concerning available cash and cash equivalents [following the merger with Macromedia and Adobeï¿½s expectations with respect to future stock repurchases, including the timing and amount of such repurchases, and other matters that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from results expressed or implied by this presentation. Such risk factors include, among others: difficulties encountered in integrating merged businesses; uncertainties as to the timing of the merger; approval of the transaction by the stockholders of the companies; the satisfaction of closing conditions to the transaction, including the receipt of regulatory approvals; whether certain market segments grow as anticipated; the competitive environment in the software industry and competitive responses to the proposed merger; and whether the companies can successfully develop new products and the degree to which these gain market acceptance. Actual results may differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements in this presentation.

Mike Chambers: News, resources, info and links on everything Flash from a Macromedia Product ... First, Macromedia and Adobe have announced that we are combining into a ...

Adobe Macromedia acquisition roundup (kottke.org): Dave Shea, well-known and respected web designer, echoes the thoughts of many in saying that Adobe bought Macromedia for their web products and savvy...and Flash in particular. Shea also wonders "what will become of Adobe's long-standing commitment to SVG, now that Flash is in the fold", names Microsoft as Adobe's main competition now (MS seems to fighting on several fronts now...the Google/Yahoo/Jeeves, Apple, and now this), but is also worried about the loss of competition in the design space: "the combined Macromedia and Adobe stable of design software is industry standard; with this buyout, Adobe essentially has a monopoly over the design world. (Quark aside. Very far aside.)" Flash/web developer Todd Dominey echoes many of Shea's comments in his post about the deal.

FLAshot„¢ - Der Schweizer Macromedia Flash Blog: Aber auf alle Fälle ist das von Juliana Sato Yamashita (Sao Paulo/Brazil) realisierte Projekt ein Besuch wert! Bei SearchScapes handelt es sich um eine 3D-Map von Manhattan, bei welcher die Höhe der einzelnen Gebäude von den Google-Search-Resultaten (nach Hausnummer und Strasse) abhängig sind. Je mehr Informationen sich also über ein Gebäude im Internet finden, um so wichtiger und auch höher wird das Gebäude dargestellt.

Developer Dispatch: News and Notes For Macromedia Director and ...: Looking at other products, like Director, it is hard to say what will happen. Adobe’s front page reads: “The combination of Adobe and Macromedia strengthens our mission of helping people and organizations communicate better.” How do products like Director fit in there? But then, I don’t expect one sentence to sum up Adobe’s whole true mission.