The US Department of Justice is preparing to open an investigation into Adobe’s $20 billion takeover of Figma, Politico reported on Wednesday, citing four people with knowledge of the matter and a document it viewed.
The DOJ has been contacting customers and competitors of Adobe and Figma, as well as Figma’s venture capital investors, in recent weeks, the people said. According to one of the people, the DOJ has already issued civil investigative demands — information requests similar to subpoenas — an unusual move at this early juncture in the probe.
Related: Adobe To Buy Figma For About $20 Billion
The investigation would be the latest in a long line of actions from the DOJ and Federal Trade Commission scrutinizing the market power of the world’s largest technology companies. Lawsuits against Meta and Google are currently winding their way through the courts and investigations of Apple and Amazon are underway. And now they’re setting their sites on Adobe, which has a $140 billion valuation and is far and away the market leader in digital design tools.
