Adobe officially ends the $20 Billion Figma acquisition

Adobe and Figma have agreed to end their acquisition plans after European regulators found the deal would hurt competition in the digital design space. The $20 billion acquisition would have combined the leading product design software, Figma, and the largest and most recognized supplier of design applications, Adobe. Both Adobe and Figma are said to strongly disagree with the recent regulatory findings.  

“Although both companies continue to believe in the merits and procompetitive benefits of the combination, Adobe and Figma mutually agreed to terminate the transaction based on a joint assessment that there is no clear path to receive necessary regulatory approvals from the European Commission and the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority,” the companies wrote in a press release today. 

Initially revealed in September of the previous year, the deal was bound to undergo regulatory examination given its substantial size and the impact it had on removing one of Adobe's significant competitors. Throughout 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) closely scrutinized the transaction, although it had not officially filed any lawsuit to impede the deal. However, news surfaced over the weekend that Adobe and Figma were in talks with the DOJ in a final effort to prevent legal action. 

Regardless of the result, the two companies were already encountering substantial challenges in Europe. In late November, the U.K. determined that the proposed acquisition would "harm innovation," prompting its competition authority to initiate a thorough investigation. This followed a similar decision by the European Union (EU) in August, which also opted for a comparable course of action.