The European Union recently announced that it plans to investigate Adobe’s proposed $20 billion bid to buy Figma, its digital design software rival. Figma is a product design and prototyping platform popular with companies in a variety of industries.
Competition watchdogs in the area have launched a full-scale investigation into the acquisition after a preliminary review uncovered potential concerns about a reduction in competition between product design tools worldwide. The European Commission said in a statement that their investigation seeks to “ensure that consumers continue to have access to a wide variety of digital creative tools to choose from.”
Adobe has defended its proposed acquisition, explaining that integrating Figma into its Creative Cloud suite could make it a more effective competitor to its asset creation tools. Others support the idea that the purchase could expand the availability of product design tools, as well as Figma’s potential to become an even stronger competitor.
However, the deal may be halted depending on what is found by the investigation. If regulators find competition will be decreased, they could take action to block the purchase. A final decision from the European Union is expected by December 14th.