Adobe will finally acquire Macromedia on Dec 3, 2005. The purchase gives Adobe, creator of the Acrobat program for creating PDF documents, a range of Web-design programs and Macromedia's Flash, software for playing videos that's used in 98 percent of the world's computers.The closing of the transaction, which has been ratified by shareholders of both companies, had remained subject to regulatory approval in a few European jurisdictions. The U.S. Department of Justice has already cleared the proposed deal.
Solution providers have said the Macrodobe combination Adobe's ubiquitous PDF file format and Acrobat reader and strong PhotoShop franchise along with Macromedia's robust Dreamweaver toolset for web development and Flash player for multimedia websites, are a potent counterweight even to Microsoft's software dominance. Both PDF and Flash are seen as even more pervasive on PCs, desktops, and devices than Microsoft Windows or Internet Explorer, for example. [via | via]