Two iconic software companies. One iconic buyout. There is talk that Microsoft may swoop in and acquire Adobe, the biggest name in design and creativity software.
The Redmond based technology giant has been steadily transforming its business — transitioning from the walled garden approach of yesteryears to that of a more open playground. The shift has been in place ever since the fall of Windows Mobile in favor of other mobile platforms.
Namely Android and iOS.
In between, the company has also warmed up to Linux, and made moves to grow its cloud offering with several high-profile acquisitions for Azure.
And as discussed in this piece, it is this integration of Adobe with the Azure cloud platform that makes Microsoft the strongest candidate for a buyout that could potentially happen within the next 12 to 18 months.
It will not be cheap, if it does.
Expect Microsoft to shell out a much higher price than the current $240 price of Adobe shares.
The two companies are close collaborators, not just in the domain of Windows where Microsoft regularly releases patches and security updates for Adobe Flash and other products and Adobe continues to launch its software and services on the operating system.
But the two also frequently work together in areas like CRM and data management, forming an alliance in areas that matter.
And while the speculation of Microsoft taking over Adobe is not new, things continue to heat up by the way of the cloud and ecosystem focus the two companies currently possess. Not to mention the raging success of the Office 365 service, which is now one of the primary breadwinners for Redmond.
Take a look at this lengthy article, and read up on why this is a merge that makes sense.
At the end of the way, although nothing is certain in this regard yet, but stranger things have happened in the world of computing. And stranger things may yet come to pass.
