Adobe will abandon its $20 billion takeover of the design software maker Figma, the two companies said on Monday, bowing to growing regulatory opposition to the deal on both sides of the Atlantic.
The announcement is the latest sign that government campaigns to more aggressively scrutinize mergers are claiming some successes.
Announced last fall, the transaction was meant to give Adobe control of a fast-growing provider of collaborative design software. But the planned combination drew concern from antitrust regulators in the United States, the European Union and Britain over whether it would reduce potential competition to flagship Adobe products like Photoshop and Illustrator.
While the companies have argued that they do not compete, regulators said that the takeover could forestall future rivalries and lead to higher prices for consumers. “It is important in digital markets, as well as in more traditional industries, to not only look at current overlaps but to also protect future competition,” Margrethe Vestager, the head of the European Commission’s competition policy, said in a statement.
Monday’s announcement was an admission that the companies were unlikely to overcome those objections, and would have had to spend months fighting regulators in court in three jurisdictions.
“Adobe and Figma strongly disagree with the recent regulatory findings, but we believe it is in our respective best interests to move forward independently,” Shantanu Narayen, Adobe’s chair and chief executive, said in a statement.
Dylan Field, Figma’s chief executive, said in a blog post: “We no longer see a path toward regulatory approval of the deal.”
Under the terms of the now-scrapped plan, Adobe must pay Figma a $1 billion breakup fee.
Shares in Adobe were up 1.7 percent in premarket trading on Monday.
