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When Adobe announced<\/span> it was putting up $20 billion<\/span><\/a> to buy Figma in September 2022, it didn\u2019t take long before people began assuming it was a blatant attempt to take a competitor off the market.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It was certainly curious, especially considering the offer was double what the company\u2019s most recent valuation had been and worth around 50x Figma\u2019s revenue. It\u2019s hard to argue that the deal wasn\u2019t a display of brute force on Adobe\u2019s part, the kind of corporate rollup that regulators are trying to put a stop to after years of letting the tech giants run rampant, buying up startups that could eventually erode their market share.<\/span><\/p>\n The proposed Adobe-Figma deal has certainly gotten the attention of regulators \u2014 and not in a welcoming way. Already, the <\/span>Justice Department<\/span><\/a>, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) \u2014 <\/span>Britain\u2019s competition watchdog<\/span><\/a> \u2014 and <\/span>the EU<\/span><\/a> are taking long, hard looks at the deal, and it wouldn\u2019t be too much of a stretch to think that any of them could nix the deal for being anticompetitive.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe are still in preliminary phases of the regulatory process and are having constructive discussions with the CMA, EC and DOJ about the businesses, markets and positive economic impacts this deal will bring to support [customers\u2019 positive] reviews [of the product],\u201d an Adobe spokesperson told TechCrunch+.<\/p>\n It seems pretty obvious even to a casual observer that <\/span>Adobe is trying to take a potential rival<\/span><\/a> off the board, a move that could stifle both competition and innovation, not a great mix for design software consumers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n To be sure, the deal would give Adobe an entirely new look, one it has tried to build on its own with a design tool rival, Adobe XD. But XD never gained much traction, which explains why the company was willing to fork over $20 billion to get the cream of the crop.<\/span><\/p>\n