The UK’s competition watchdog has completed its initial investigation into Adobe’s $20 billion acquisition of cloud-based product design platform Figma and has raised concerns about potential competition reduction. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) warned that the merger could pose a “substantial lessening of competition” for UK designers by eliminating a “significant competitive threat to Adobe” from the market. Unless Adobe or Figma can provide satisfactory solutions to address the CMA’s concerns by July 7th, the merger will face a deeper investigation that could potentially derail the deal. Both companies have argued that Adobe is not a significant competitor to Figma. The CMA acknowledges Adobe’s decreased investment in its own product design application but asserts that it remains one of the limited alternatives to Figma. The CMA also highlights internal documents suggesting Adobe’s prior intent to directly compete with Figma.
Meta Data: {“keywords”:”UK, competition watchdog, Adobe, Figma, acquisition, cloud-based product design platform, merger, competition reduction”}
Source link