Adobe Completes Acquisition Of Macromedia Options

[Guest]

Adobe Completes Acquisition of Macromedia

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Dec. 5, 2005 - Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the completion of its acquisition of Macromedia, Inc. The transaction was finalized on Saturday, Dec. 3, 2005. As a result of the acquisition, Macromedia common stock is no longer being traded and shares of Macromedia common stock were converted into the right to receive 1.38 shares of Adobe common stock.

The combination of Adobe and Macromedia creates one of the world's largest, most innovative and diversified software companies. The acquisition brings together some of the industry's strongest software brands and most ubiquitous technologies for creating, managing and delivering compelling content and experiences across multiple operating systems, devices and media. The move also accelerates Adobe's strategic initiative to advance a powerful software platform, based on PDF and Macromedia® Flash® technologies, that scales from mobile devices to high-end servers.

"The explosion of digital content, combined with the accelerating proliferation of mobile phones, wireless devices and the growth of broadband are transforming the way the world engages with information," said Bruce Chizen, chief executive officer of Adobe. "Adobe and Macromedia are at the center of this trend, and together we will build on our combined heritage to redefine the way people and businesses communicate."

This week the company will begin executing the planned integration of the two companies' operations, networks and customer care organizations to ensure a smooth transition and immediate value for customers, partners and investors. As part of the initial integration of product portfolios, Adobe today announced three new product bundles that combine the design and publishing power of Adobe® Creative Suite 2 and Adobe video tools with the interactive strength of just-released Macromedia Flash Professional 8 and Macromedia Studio 8 software (see separate press release).

Management of the combined company includes executives and board members from both organizations. Bruce Chizen continues as chief executive officer and Shantanu Narayen remains as president and chief operating officer. Macromedia's Stephen Elop has joined Adobe as president of worldwide field operations. Murray Demo remains executive vice president and chief financial officer. Dr. John Warnock and Dr. Charles Geschke remain co-chairmen of the Board of Directors of the combined company and Macromedia's chairman, Rob Burgess, has joined the Adobe Board.

[Guest]

Funny how Adobe came out with their own "Live Motion" program (in 2001?) to compete head-on with Macromedia Flash, and then when Live Motion bombed and was pulled (in 2004?), then decide that if they can't compete against Macromedia, they should buy them out.

Think how life would be today if Microsoft did that with Google a few years ago.

[anny]

The combination of adobe and macromedia provide the striking feature for software companies.It is nice that they are also inventing new versions that is Macromedia Flash Professional 8 and Macromedia Studio 8 software.

[Hey Hey]

It's no coincidence that 'Flash' rhymes with 'crash'!

[Rick]

I don't like flash on Websites. The flash player doesn't allow the user to copy images.

[Hey Hey]

The flash player doesn't allow the user to copy images.

One can do that indirectly, of course.

[Rick]

If you dont' know the image file name, how can it be done?

[Hey Hey]

If you dont' know the image file name, how can it be done?

Simplest way is to stop the movie at the appropriate point and do a screen region screen capture.

[Hey Hey]

On the mac there are programs to extract images and movies from a web page, eg FileJuicer.

[Rick]

The trouble is, when an image file is played in a flash player, it resizes the image to fit the player, so the larger source image is not available when the screen is captured, you only get the low rez flash view.

[astroidea]

You could always download the standalone flash file without the resize scripts in the HTML by viewing source of the webpage and looking for the target of the flash file. It'll be an url linking to a file ending in .swf.
I usually just do a ctrl+f find for .swf. Then you paste the link into the browser.
You could also download the standalone flash player and save the.swf onto your computer. Then you can fullscreen. Well actually you can fullscreen your browser too.

[Rick]

Thanks!

[Hey Hey]

The trouble is, when an image file is played in a flash player, it resizes the image to fit the player, so the larger source image is not available when the screen is captured, you only get the low rez flash view.

Programs like FileJuicer download the source files. Then you can easily look at all dl'ed files (of a particular type) in the relevant program-created folder. Individual frames in movies of any type have a quality dependent on all sorts of factors, so may not be photo clear whatever the method used to abstract the source or subsequent frames.

Not all swf files can be dl'ed so conveniently though, whether using a program or from the 'view source' menu. It's always the one you want that is firmly protected.

[Rick]

I'm mostly interested in copying still images and sometimes movie files for reproduction on my own Website, so I don't like visiting flash sites.