Adobe executives think there’s a lot that critics of its $20 billion purchase of Figma are missing. From a report: In a meeting with Axios, Adobe general counsel Dana Rao defended the deal’s price tag and highlighted why Adobe believes it needs Figma to help shape the design-software giant’s broader future. Adobe XD just wasn’t cutting it. It was a product designed for a single user sitting at a PC in a world that wants cloud-based tools for real-time multi-user collaboration. After seven years of investment, Adobe XD was bringing in just $15 million in annual recurring revenue on a standalone basis — a minuscule fraction of Figma’s $400 million annual recurring revenue. (That, in turn, is a minuscule fraction of Adobe’s overall annual revenue of $17 billion.)
Adobe has essentially put XD on ice, assigning just 20 employees to the product in what it sees as “maintenance mode.” Figma