[aluminussoma]

Adobe has been unable to find technological innovation organically (To their credit, their stock price soared through financial engineering). Adobe has instead augmented its capabilities through acquisitions. Today's acquisition of Figma is no different.

And maybe that is fine. Adobe is not alone. Many big companies can only expand their capabilities through acquisitions. Those big companies are doing fine.

Specific to Adobe, the acquisition of Macromedia was a huge success in part because it injected a lot of talent into Adobe that stayed and succeeded. Maybe Figmates will be able to do the same.

[klabb3]

> their stock price soared through financial engineering

Not disagreeing with your point, but they can kindly fuck off piggy-backing on the good reputation of engineering, which is about building things, not rent-seeking and gate keeping. It would be like saying Intuit is innovating "political engineering". Or calling an unpaid internship at Goldman Sachs "volunteering". I have similar thoughts about "growth hacking", btw.

[CharlesW]

> Adobe has been unable to find technological innovation organically…

In-house innovation is not the problem¹. What Adobe hasn't been able to replicate with XD or Illustrator is Figma's success with network effects related to collaborative editing and review.

https://research.adobe.com/research/

[aluminussoma]

In house innovation is certainly a problem on the product side. What new Adobe products have come out in the last decade? Every new product or service is from an acquisition.