Adobe's $20 billion acquisition of Figma has been blocked, and the European Commission is evaluating the acquisition

CTOnews.com, February 16 (Xinhua)-- the European Commission's antitrust regulator is about to evaluate the Figma acquisition to investigate whether it will affect industry competition after being acquired by Adobe.

Adobe announced its acquisition of Figma in September last year in a deal worth about $20 billion in stock and cash. The creators of Figma will join Adobe and the deal is expected to go through the regulatory approval process in 2023.

The European Commission will evaluate the acquisition to see if it will have a significant impact on "interactive product design and competition in the whiteboard software market".

The committee said the acquisition did not meet the financial liquidity threshold set by EU merger regulations and that the two companies could complete the merger without notifying European regulators.

However, under EU Article 22, EU member States may refer the case to the Commission if they believe that the transaction will reduce competition in specific European markets. Since both Adobe and Figma produce design software, the acquisition has been submitted to the committee for approval.

CTOnews.com learned that Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden had requested the Commission to evaluate Adobe's merger and acquisition regulations for Figma.

The Justice Department is preparing an investigation into Adobe's $20 billion acquisition of Figma, Reuters reported last November.