Matt Kent, a competition policy advocate for consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, agreed, telling The Verge,"It certainly looks like Adobe is in a dominant market position, and this acquisition would increase that dominance."
Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan and Department of Justice antitrust chief Jonathan Kanter have made it clear that they intend to be more aggressive in heading off anti-competitive deals and behavior. Khan sued to block Facebook-parent Meta Platforms Inc. from acquiring Within Unlimited Inc., the virtual-reality app developer. She is scrutinizing Amazon.com Inc's $1.7 billion plan to buy Roomba vacuum maker iRobot Corp.
So at the least, observers say there will likely be a review of the Adobe-Figma deal. Whether regulators attempt to block it, though, isn't certain."The combination of Adobe and Figma will greatly benefit consumers," Adobe said in a statement to Axios."We expect the transaction to close in 2023, subject to the receipt of required regulatory clearances and approvals."
Competitors and creative designers aren't the only one with concerns about the deal. Investors have sent Adobe's stock down by more than 20%, cutting its market capitalization by more than the $20 billion price it plans to pay for Figma. Its shares are now trading below $300 a piece, around where they were at the end of 2019.