Adobe’s $20 billion bid for Figma is on the U.K. competition authority’s increasing list. Today, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced a “phase 1” merger probe, giving stakeholders two weeks to respond.
Last September, Adobe announced a $20 billion bid for Figma, which was expected to draw regulatory scrutiny. In February, the European Commission (EC) announced that the purchase “threatens to significantly affect competition in the market for interactive product design and whiteboarding software.”
France and Germany requested EC intervention. The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) may sue to halt the merger. However, this is unconfirmed.
The Adobe-Figma deal is the U.K.’s newest M&A transaction. Last week, the CMA blocked Microsoft’s $68.7 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition and confirmed its pursuit of Broadcom’s $61 billion VMware acquisition.
On a legal technicality, Apple prevented the CMA from investigating Apple and Google’s “mobile duopoly” in browsers and cloud gaming. The CMA’s appeal was denied earlier today. Meanwhile, U.K. communications regulator Ofcom is considering referring the local cloud infrastructure services market to the CMA, targeting AWS and Microsoft.
After the Adobe-Figma merger inquiry notice period ends on May 18, the CMA has until June 30 to evaluate its findings and decide whether to launch a “phase 2” investigation.
