Graphic gurus
The rise of Figma
Good morning, pixel pioneers. This is your Stock Market Rundown for January 5th, 2024. Thanks for hanging out with me. Let’s get going:
TODAY’S TOP STORY: DIGITAL DEAL DITCHED
In the era before TikTok filters and internet meme generators, if you wanted to craft a hilarious meme—or erase a pimple from a prom photo—you had only one option: Adobe Photoshop.
Founded in 1982, Adobe is a longtime leader in graphics, illustration, and multimedia software. But in recent years, a scrappy upstart has threatened Adobe’s dominance.
That challenger, Figma, is a cloud-based design tool that was started up when co-founder Dylan Field was just 20 years old. Field lucked out by scoring a grant from an eccentric Silicon Valley billionaire that gave him $100,000 to drop out of college and pursue his entrepreneurial ideas, and started building the product in 2012.
Alongside co-founder Evan Wallace, Field worked on Figma until 2016 before launching. Apparently, four years isn’t just long enough to train to win gold in Olympic synchronized swimming—it’s also long enough to build software that can disrupt an industry.
Figma was an instant hit among designers, and Adobe soon realized that if they couldn’t bake a better cake, they had to buy the whole bakery. In September 2022, the two companies reached a deal for Adobe to acquire Figma for a cool $20 billion.
But major regulatory hurdles were thrown up by European authorities, who feared the deal would tighten Adobe’s chokehold in design software. Facing insurmountable barriers, Adobe was forced to admit defeat and call off the deal. “It’s not the outcome we hoped for,” Dylan Field said in a statement, probably right after throwing a full cup of coffee against a wall in rage.
Silver lining: unlike most breakups, where all you get is a cardboard box with your hoodie and toothbrush, Adobe will be handing Figma a breakup fee of $1 billion. That’s enough scratch to mop up a few tears.
SO WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?
Jonesing for an Elf Bar? You’re not alone. The feds have seized and destroyed millions of fruity-flavored illegal Chinese vapes at US ports, to keep American teens from becoming nicotine fiends.
Ever thought you had enough air miles for a round trip to Vegas, but it turned out you could only score a one-way flight to St. Louis? The government is here to help: they’re investigating airline frequent-flyer programs to stop deceptive practices.
Prices of corn, soybeans, and coal were down double-digits in 2023. But the cost of your hot chocolate may have gone up—cocoa rose to multi-decade highs.
Microsoft is ending support for Windows 10, which will send thousands of boomer PCs to the landfill. Let’s face it, any computer so old it can only use an operating system from 2015 probably runs on diesel and a hand crank.
That's it for this week, mes amis; have yourselves a fabulous weekend, and let’s rendezvous back here, first thing Monday. Yours in capitalism, The Axe
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