Reports are coming out that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen had a meeting at Adobe's headquarters in San Francisco. It was also reported that both Ballmer and Narayen were accompanied by their entourages. The rumors starting swirling almost immediately after the hour long meeting took place. People with knowledge of the meeting reported that discussions were around two ideas.
The first being a stronger partnership between Microsoft and Adobe when it comes to the mobile phone market. Remember that Adobe and Microsoft have been rivals with competing software and the companies really became combative in 2007 when Microsoft began promoting its Silverlight, a software plugin for the Web that directly competes with Adobe Flash.
The Second and more intriguing is a possible buyout from Microsoft. Now Microsoft in the past has held discussions about a possible purchase of Adobe but always felt that it would be a waste of time because of anti-trust laws, but keep in ind that this was before Google and Apple became major players in the tech world.
This potential partnership smells of desperation as Apple gains more traction in the Mobile Phone Market. Both Adobe and Microsoft have felt the sting from Apple, with Apple ripping apart Adobe because of Flash and Apple converting millions of Windows Mobile users over to iOS. I would definitely say that Microsoft purchasing Adobe would be a waste of money and a partnership would involve the least amount of risk with a very high potential for reward.
By Chase Thompson
Source NYTimes
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