Is Apple Planning To Buy Adobe?

Cringely thinks recetn activity by Apple -- apparently shopping around its professional editing applications business -- means that Jobs wants to buy Adobe:

[from Iron Man]

[...]

The major point here is that Adobe is in play, or at least Apple thinks so. The company has plenty of cash and stock to do the deal and plenty of incentive, too. Apple's goal in acquiring Adobe would be to control first Flash and second Adobe's emerging Air application platform. Adobe announced this week a broad industry initiative to extend Flash to mobile devices, but Apple wasn't a participant. Why bother if you intend to shortly own Flash outright?

Owning Flash and merging it with QuickTime would give Apple near-total dominance of Internet video, furthering the advantages of iTunes and shoring up in the process the iPod franchise. They'd be giving up a sports car in Final Cut Pro, but end up effectively owning the road instead.

And Cringley doesn't touch on the possible future of Flash on mobile devices, which lines up with Apples iPhone plans, as well. Interesting to have an Apple outpost on 99% of the connected PCs in the world, too. Get iChat running in the Flash player, and voila, the leading IM network in the world, too.

Comments

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It would give Apple quite a boost but does it outweigh the problems they would have to face if they bought Adobe?.

That is the question. and i think it would get them a sea of problems.