It seems wrong/illegal that they can just "decide they're against the merger" and sink it by dragging their feet. Its either legal or not. I haven't dug into the details, but based on this one line alone it sounds like this is abuse of power.
They literally indicated they were against it from early on, but Adobe tried to brute force it through and after careful review they said, “still no.”
Also, it’s not as if Figma has been sitting around all this time waiting for their dear Adobe to close. My understanding is that more than 500 new people have been hired since the deal was announced (total is now like 1300+) and growth continues.
I’m just glad Figma can now move on without having to do some “roadmap alignment exercise” or doing the “gradually falling apart” that so many Adobe acquisitions have done.
The real thought should be why Adobe was willing to pay twice the recent valuation to take Figma out as a competitor, and why only European regulators had a problem with it. They have a tendency to kneecap anyone who’s a substantive threat to their market, and we need viable competition in the space.
It may not have been particularly timely in terms of review, but it was never inconsistent. And we have no idea what kinds of delays were put on the deal, including delays from the Figma and Adobe teams.
Another way to say "decide they're against the merger" is "evaluate the situation and make a timely ruling that they oppose the merger as illegal."
Which is exactly what they were supposed to do. Adobe and Figma tried to argue with the regulators or find a compromise, but couldn't come up with a solution that satisfied all parties.
If you try to extract subtle implications from the phrasing of a commenter on HN, you're likely to jump to the wrong conclusion.
But that's the point: it's not timely. It's a massive millstone to Figma, who now have to figure out what to do with their pixel-perfect UI designer collaboration tool in a world of an and coming Adobe Firefly.
It seems they are saying the merger as is will be illegal, however they give both companies some time to do something that will make the deal work. 15 months is a short time if you have to sell enterprise assets or let competition emerge to show the merger isn’t a danger to the market.
If companies want a fast answer they can ask for one and it will be no.
All said I do not worry about if billion dollar companies are being fairly treated. They have the capital and expertise to protect their own interests and it’s not worth it to preemptively fight on their behalf.
Perhaps I should introduce you to the legal system? Adobe proposes the merger, DoJ says they will sue to stop it. At that point, if the parties can't come to an agreement, it goes to the courts.
I think it's fine to argue our legal system is too slow, but again, this idea that regulators are just "dragging their feet" to slow things down is fundamentally incorrect. Regulators announced quite quickly they would fight this deal.
Welcome to the world of antitrust, where almost everything is in a grey area and vibes-based. Never seen anyone who studied this area (and who didn't already work for a related Federal agency) who didn't conclude that this was a big mess, no matter their opinions on how it should work.
