LAS VEGAS - San Jose's Adobe Systems (www.adobe.com), makers of Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere and Acrobat, announced, on Monday, a definitive agreement to purchase San Francisco's Macromedia (www.macromedia.com) in an all-stock transaction that is valued at $3.4 billion. Macromedia makes Dreamweaver MX, Flash MX and Studio MX. The transaction is expected to close this fall.
"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," says Bruce Chizen, CEO of Adobe.
According to Adobe, the mission of the combined company is to "help people and businesses communicate better." With the acquisition of Macromedia, Adobe strengthens its mission through the combination of development, authoring and collaboration tools - and the complementary functionality of PDF and Flash. Going forward, the combined company has the opportunity to define a robust technology platform that delivers compelling, rich content across a wide range of devices and operating systems. The two companies are developing integration plans that build on cultural similarities and the best business and product development practices from each company.
In the combined company, Chizen will continue as chief executive officer and Shantanu Narayen will remain president and COO.