Software giant, Adobe will officially spend US$20 billion to acquire the popular collaborative design platform Figma according to a new report from the company on Thursday.

According to the report, the acquisition will be half cash and half stock with the completion expected to be made by the year 2023.

Adobe is a massive company in the creative and design business while Figma on the other hand had seen sheer growth over the last decade.

The platform has amassed millions of users across the globe with a lot of enterprises adopting the collaborative platform as part of their product design tool.

With the new deal, Figma CEO and co-founder Dylan Field will continue to lead the Figma team but will report to David Wadhwani who is Adobe’s Digital Media business president.

“Adobe is deeply committed to keeping Figma operating autonomously,” Field wrote in a blog post, adding that he will collaborate with Wadhwani on how to continue growing Figma’s business. “The entire Figma team will report to me. We plan to continue to run Figma the way we have always run Figma — continuing to do what we believe is best for our community, our culture, and our business.”

That said, Field added that “this is a big change, especially for a platform you rely on every day.”

He also explained how the acquisition will affect the Figma platform and its users. Adobe will now be able to incorporate its array of technology into the Figma platform making it all synchronized.

“Additionally, we will have the opportunity to reimagine what the best creative tools could look like within the Figma technology stack,” Field said. 

Figma continues to expand into new areas over time while simultaneously improving products like Figma Design, FigJam, and the Figma community platform. The Friends of Figma program will continue to grow into new communities. 

Adobe added, “The combination of Adobe’s and Figma’s communities will bring designers and developers closer together to unlock the future of collaborative design.

There are currently no plans to change Figma’s pricing, and the platform will continue to be free for education.

While the news was honestly shocking to me when I first heard it, it’s obvious that big tech companies control the majority of products we use on the daily basis and we hope Adobe treats Figma well enough.

One of the reasons I think Adobe also made the purchase is the influx of new users switching to Figma from Adobe XD which was initially the bread and butter of product design until it was overtaken completely by Figma.