Adobe to Acquire Figma in Merger That Might Boost Visual NFT Initiatives 

Adobe, a creative design software company, has announced an acquisition of Figma, an web design application, for $20 billion, in an attempt to take on its biggest rival.

Adobe plans to merge some of the existing features, like photography, illustration, and video technology, with Figma’s products. Adobe provides paid features like Illustrator, Photoshop, Behance, Premiere Pro, and others.

“The combination of Adobe and Figma is transformational and will accelerate our vision for collaborative creativity,” Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen said.

Founded in 2012, Figma is anticipating generating over $400 million this year, according to CNBC sources. The previous investors in the web design platforms include the likes of Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, and Greylock Partners. 

Dylan Field, the CEO of Figma, seemed to be excited about the partnership, saying there is “a huge potential” for both companies and features designers can get from this collaboration, he explained during an interview with Bloomberg.

Adobe President of Digital Media Business, David Wadhwami, is not alarmed by the fact that this acquisition deal happened during the global market downturn. He believes Figma is one of the best companies to acquire at this point, as he evaluates it as cash flow positive, with a net dollar retention rate of over 150%.

More crypto and NFT initiatives to come?

The merger of the two companies might mean more NFT initiatives.

Adobe has already stepped into a non-fungible (NFT) game. In October 2021, the company announced it would be integrating a “prepare as NFT” option into Photoshop. The option will allow, among other features, to prove ownership of NFTs, and it will be called Content Credentials. Digital collectibles sellers could link their crypto wallet to their Adobe ID, which will prove the authenticity of NFTs, should NFT marketplaces check it.

Behance, a social media platform for visual artists and designers, also got a crypto update – the users will be able to add crypto wallets to their portfolios. The software platform also said it would be exploring supporting several blockchains like Polygon (MATIC), Solana (SOL), Tezos (XTZ), and Flow (FLOW).This year, Behance added support for the Polygon blockchain to make it easier for them to showcase Polygon_based NFTs. The social media platform said that they chose MATIC for its “environmentally conscious way for artists to create” digital collectibles.

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