Acquisition Replay — Episode 01
Adobe / Figma
The Buyer Was the Problem
The market saw Adobe securing the future of design. Two design leaders merging into one inevitable combination.
Acquisition Recon saw a different pattern. Adobe attempted to acquire Figma in 2020. Failed. Again in 2021. Failed again. In 2022, it paid $20 billion. That sequence is not persistence. It is intent — the signature of a killer acquisition.
The enterprise itself was clean — cloud-native, well-documented, low integration risk. The problem was never Figma. The problem was the regulatory consequence of Adobe being the buyer.
Deal Decision Score — 28
Do not proceed
Not because Figma was the wrong company. Because Adobe was the wrong buyer. The market reached the same conclusion fourteen months later — at a cost of $1 billion.
The enterprise was excellent. The buyer was wrong. These are different problems. Only one was visible before filing.