Speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit Adobe chief executive Shantanu Narayen denied reports that he has been negotiating with Microsoft about a possible acquisition.
The New York Times reported last month that Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, met with Narayen. Topics covered included competing with Apple and a “possible acquisition of Adobe by Microsoft was among the options.”
VentureBeat reports from Web 2.0 Summit, “Narayen said the discussion really focused on “how we can be a great ISV” — in other words, an “independent software vendor” reselling Microsoft products.”
(ht Bryan Yeager)
Discussion
By Chuck on Nov 18, 2010
I'm going to go out on a limb and speculate that, for the right price, Narayen would indeed sell Adobe.
And while I wouldn't rule out the possibility of Microsoft buying Adobe, despite what was said at the Web 2.0 Summit, I don't think Microsoft does much for Adobe. And I also don't think an Adobe acquisition does much to solve Microsoft's biggest problem, which is the fact that the stock has been in a hover for a decade or so, and Steve Ballmer doesn't seem to want to articulate a vision that will lead to substantial innovation and growth. I say "want", because clearly he's a very smart guy and there's an amazing amount of the world's greatest software in MSFT.
Technology-wise, Adobe has some stuff that Microsoft really wants. Flash/Flex, enterprise PDF stuff, the Scene7 goodies, Omniture, CS, robust video tools, etc.
Long ago, Microsoft wanted the MS Word .DOC format to be what PDF turned into; more recently, Microsoft spent a gazillion dollars on Silverlight, with the hope that they could take the market away from Flash.
In light of that, its a good bet that that MSFT still covets those markets, and does not want all that Adobe technology in the hands of someone like Google, or more far out possibilities like Apple or Oracle, either of which could snap up Adobe. And there are other possible suitors, too.
By Nick on Nov 19, 2010
Great, all we need is for Microsoft to ruin the Adobe products.
Discussion
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