In April of 2005, Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE), producer of the acclaimed Acrobat document-sharing software, agreed to buy digital animation and design software company Macromedia Inc. (MACR) for approximately $3.4 billion in stock.

Adobe Overview

Adobe’s software helps businesses in their everyday computer technology needs. Their software is based on the Adobe Intelligent Document Platform as well as the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). Adobe reader technology is used by thousands to exchange and view information via the internet. Adobe Creative Suite allows individuals the ability to engage in print and web publishing, while the Adobe Video Collection allows professional video work to be done on films, DVDs, and the web. Adobe also offers a complete line of digital photo and video editing software. The estimated 4,000 employees of Adobe work hard to produce the annual revenue that Adobe generates, $1.6 billion. Adobe’s headquarters is in San Jose, California and was founded in 1982.

Macromedia Overview

Macromedia specializes in providing software for the creation of multimedia and web development. Macromedia is the creator of Shockwave and Flash content that gave web designers control over the appearance of web sites for the first time. Macromedia’s product list includes Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Director, Flash, Flash Generator, Freehand, Fontographer, Sound Edit 16, Sitespring, Coldfusion, JRun, and Homesite.

Macromedia History

Macromedia was formed by the merger and acquisition of seven companies. Macromedia was initially called Macromind and was formed in 1982. Paracomp was formed in 1987 and merged with Macromind in 1991 to form Macromind-Paracomp. Authorware, which was founded in 1987, merged with Macromind-Paracomp in 1992 to create Macromedia. In 1993, Macromedia made its initial public offering at 12$ per share on Nasdaq and in 1995 Macromedia acquired AltSys which was the producer of the very successful Freehand vector drawing application. This Freehand application was in direct competition with Adobe Illustrator. In 1997, Macromedia acquired Futurewave Software and in 2001, macromedia merged with Allaire. Allaire was a company that was founded in 1995 and had acquired Bradbury Software and Livesoftware in 1997. Allaire’s founder was J.J. Allaire and Allaire’s main product was Coldfusion which was a scriptable web application server.