In case you haven’t heard, Adobe bought Macromedia for 3.4 billion dollars earlier last week. Some people believe great things are going to come out of this merger, others think it will end up biting Adobe in the you-know-where. Here is an article from MarketWatch that falls under the second group, saying that the reason Adobe purchased Macromedia was out of fear for Microsoft. Apparnetly Microsoft betrayed the trust of Adobe back in 1989, and so Adobe has been paranoid Microsoft ever since.

Note: The read is definitely worth your while, but you’ll have to register a free account at Marketwatch.

In the classic 1966 Michelangelo Antonioni film, “Blow-Up,” the protagonist is at a small rock concert where pandemonium breaks out as the lead guitarist throws his guitar into the audience — putting it up for grabs.

A fight ensues. Somehow, the protagonist ends up with the guitar and scoots into the street chased by an angry mob — all demanding the instrument. Soon he looks back and the mob is gone. He looks at the guitar then throws it into the trash.

This scene, to me, epitomizes Adobe Systems.

The only difference is that with Adobe, nobody else is actually after the guitar. Adobe only thinks they are.

Over the years Adobe has shown itself to be an aggressive, but paranoid software vendor.

Its paranoia stems from Microsoft. Adobe is constantly looking over its shoulder at Microsoft and what Microsoft might do. All this is because of a blindside announcement by Microsoft at the Seybold Desktop Publishing Conference in San Francisco on September 20, 1989 when it announced TrueType fonts and made Apple (a traditional Adobe partner) it’s strategic partner to promote the new font standard.

[Continue reading Skittish Adobe buys Macromedia]