Adobe's Figma Acquisition Withdrawal

Today, I'm talking to Dana Rao, who is General Counsel and Chief Trust Officer at Adobe. Now, if you're a longtime Decoder listener, you know that I have always been fascinated with Adobe, which I think the tech press largely undercovers. If you're interested in how creativity happens, you're kind of necessarily interested in what Adobe's up to. And it is fascinating to consider how Dana's job as Adobe's top lawyer is really at the center of the company's future. 

The copyright issues with generative AI are so unknown and unfolding so fast that they will necessarily shape what kind of products Adobe can even make in the future, and what people can make with those products. The company also just tried and failed to buy the popular upstart design company Figma, a potentially $20 billion deal that was shut down over antitrust concerns in the European Union. So Dana and I had a lot to talk about.

Links: 

• Adobe abandons $20 billion acquisition of Figma
• Adobe explains why it abandoned the Figma deal
• Why Figma is selling to Adobe for $20 billion, with CEO Dylan Field
• Figma’s CEO laments demise of $20 billion deal with Adobe
• Adobe proposes anti-impersonation law
• Adobe’s Dana Rao doesn’t want you to get duped by A
• The New York Times is suing OpenAI and Microsoft
• Adobe’s Photoshop on the web launch includes its popular desktop AI tools

Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23791239

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and was edited by Callie Wright.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Executive Producer is Eleanor Donovan.

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