If IPO-hungry investors thought they’d get some relief in the M&A market, the opportunity for a successful exit got a whole lot bleaker in the last few days.
Yesterday Adobe and Figma announced that they had called off the blockbuster $20 billion acquisition the companies had first announced 15 months ago. That deal was set to be Adobe’s largest acquisition ever and one of the largest acquisitions of a subscription software company in history. It was also going to be a much-needed respite for what’s been an exceedingly dry exit environment for investors. Figma’s enormous deal with Adobe has been repeatedly cited as an example of how there is still hope for strong exits for good companies—even in this market.
