Figma invited employees from the PTO to a company-wide town hall to discuss the Adobe-free future

Had Adobe merged with Figma, startup co-founder and CEO Dylan Field’s 10% stake would have been worth $2 billion. David Paul Morris – Bloomberg/Getty Images

Every year between Christmas and New Year, Figma gives all employees two weeks off to enjoy the holidays. This year’s company-wide PTO was looking more poignant as many of the software company’s employees hoped regulators would approve its $20 billion acquisition of creative giant Adobe. But on Monday, its American employees woke up to Slack and email notifications that the deal had been cancelled. The companies appear to have failed to convince EU lawmakers that the merger of Adobe and Figma would not amount to a monopoly on creativity software.

With just three hours’ notice, Figma summoned its 1,300-person workforce (known internally as “Figmate”) back from vacation for a surprise optional town hall that previewed the company’s future with the Adobe deal cancelled, luck to learn.

“‘Hugs everywhere’ was one of the things management said,” said a Figma employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity. luck.

The town hall, which lasted 60 minutes early Monday morning ET, came after 15 months of talks between Figma, Adobe and regulators to reach an agreement to merge the creative venture companies. Figma CEO Dylan Field said the decision to call off the merger was “mutual” between the two design-focused companies. Now, Adobe will have to pay Figma a $1 billion breakup fee. (A Figma spokesperson said these funds will be used to accelerate Impact as a team, but it is too early to say exactly how they will be allocated.)

“Despite the thousands of hours we have spent with regulators around the world detailing the differences between our business, products, and the markets we serve, we no longer see a path toward regulatory approval for the deal,” Figma’s CEO wrote in 2019. message It was posted on the company blog, and was first shared with employees. “Figma’s best and most innovative days are still ahead of us.”

With Adobe valuing Figma at $20 billion, and the company most recently valued at $10 billion, the upside for almost every employee hired before the deal will be significant. The gains for permanent employees could have meant the difference between owning a home versus renting or private versus public schools for the kids — with some Figmates anticipating payouts of more than 40% of their salaries when the deal closed, luck to learn.

A Figma spokesperson said: “This is not the outcome we were hoping for, and it’s fair to say we’re disappointed that regulators prevented the deal from going through.” luck. “But one thing the last two days have brought about until Most obviously, our team is amazing and that’s a big reason why we’re so confident that Figma’s best days are ahead.

For employees, the writing all over Slack was that regulators would cancel the deal. Employees have been sharing articles via internal channels citing regulatory issues related to the merger for several months. “We knew this was coming,” the source says.

luck’The source also indicates that the internal mood combines indifference and flexibility. “I don’t think it’s really changed much. It seems to me to be a delay; Figma is a very stable and powerful company. We didn’t really need this.

On Paper Source Correct Figma will end 2023 with annual recurring revenue of more than $600 million, an increase of more than 40% year over year, according to a report by multiple publications. This would cement the San Francisco-based company as one of the best late-stage private technology companies, and could make it eligible for an IPO by 2025 or later, The Guardian says. Information.

While Figma employees may be scaling back their plans for elaborate vacations and homeownership with the death of the merger, Adobe shareholders, in a shocking twist, are getting a little richer. Adobe’s stock has risen 4% since the deal was called off, demonstrating Wall Street’s dislike of acquisitions that inflate venture-backed price tags by astronomical proportions and by billions of dollars.

The position of Wall Street is shared by many Figma users, who have long cherished the creative collaboration software as a simpler and cheaper alternative to Adobe’s offerings like Photoshop, InDesign, InCopy, and so on. “It’s great news for everyone in the world.” He writes One of the designers on X talks about the failed deal.