UK regulator may refer Adobe's $20 billion Figma deal to deeper probe

Britain's competition regulator on Friday said Photoshop owner Adobe Inc's $20 billion buyout of cloud-based designer platform Figma could "reduce innovation" and may be referred to a deeper investigation.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the deal would be referred to a phase 2 investigation "unless the parties offer acceptable undertakings to address these competition concerns."

Adobe has five working days to submit proposals to address the regulator's concerns, CMA added.

"We're worried this deal could stifle innovation and lead to higher costs for companies that rely on Figma and Adobe's digital tools," Sorcha O'Carroll, Senior Mergers Director at the CMA said.

"We remain confident in the merits of the case as Figma's product design is an adjacency to Adobe's core creative products and Adobe has no meaningful plans to compete in the product design space," Adobe said in a statement emailed to Reuters. "We look forward to establishing these facts in the next phase of the process and successfully completing the transaction."

"We believe strongly that our proposed combination with Adobe will not result in any reduction of competition in our respective markets," a Figma spokesperson told Reuters. "We look forward to continued conversations with the CMA focused on the benefits a combined Adobe-Figma entity will bring."