This week, Adobe announced that it will buy Figma for $20 billion in the biggest acquisition of a private technology company to date.
Figma, a small but growing rival of Adobe, is a collaborative web application used for interface design. It simplifies and speeds up teamwork while designing.
Figma’s CEO and co-founder Dylan Field said that the company will continue to operate autonomously and he will remain CEO.
Last year during a round of funding, Figma was valued at $10 billion. Now it’s being purchased for 50x its estimated 2022 revenue, per Forbes.
“As cliché as it is, this is definitely a one-plus-one-equals-three kind of situation.”
-David Wadhwani, president of Adobe’s digital media business
Wadhwani said that Figma’s core users are software developers and product managers, while Adobe’s primary users are designers, so Adobe will be appealing to a new audience with this deal.
Zachary DeWitt, a partner at Wing Venture Capital, wrote about what made Figma successful. These were the most important things he said the company got right:
- Figma made community foundational.
- Figma made learning easy.
- Figma expanded their market beyond just designers.
Patagonia founder gives company away
Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia’s billionaire founder, announced that he will be transferring ownership of the company (and therefore all future earnings) to a trust and a non-profit organization dedicated to combatting the climate crisis and protecting the environment, according to LinkedIn News.
Patagonia is currently valued at about $3 billion. Chouinard explained the move in a letter titled “Earth is now our only shareholder.”
The decision ignores typical business mentalities, according to The New York Times. It’s relatively common for businesses to make climate pledges these days, perhaps out of genuine care or just for good PR, but giving up all future profits and ownership is a one-of-a-kind move.
“One option was to sell Patagonia and donate all the money,” Chouinard wrote. “But we couldn’t be sure a new owner would maintain our values or keep our team of people around the world employed. Another path was to take the company public. What a disaster that would have been. Even public companies with good intentions are under too much pressure to create short-term gain at the expense of long-term vitality and responsibility.”
“Truth be told, there were no good options available. So, we created our own.”
-Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia
With a rise in workers choosing to work for purpose-driven businesses, the move could have a positive impact on the recruitment and retention of a skilled workforce. Regardless, the big winner is the environment.
Other news
- Former Disney CEO Bob Iger regrets selling content to Netflix.
- Apple’s digital ads business is forecast to rise from $1 billion in 2020 to about $30 billion by 2026.
- The Washington Post published a chart showing the states with the worst brain drain.
- Earlier this month, YouTube’s biggest star went offline to serve burgers at his restaurant and it was wild.
That’s all for this week‘s Marketing Roundup. Check back next week for more news. And subscribe to our newsletter below for additional updates.
