College Dropout, Dylan Field To Join Gates, Musk, Others on Billionaires’ List

An Ivy League college dropout and co-founder Figma, Dylan Field, 30 is a step closer becoming a billionaire and making silicon valley history after tech giant Adobe offered to buy his graphic design software company for $20 billion.

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Adobe’s deal to buy Figma is a cash-and-stock deal that would be the biggest buyout of a software startup on record.

Field launched Figma in 2012 after dropping out of Brown University under a $100,000 fellowship financed by billionaire Peter Thiel, who requires recipients to leave school and pursue entrepreneurship if they are awarded the grants.

Field’s company offers popular tools that graphic designers use to collaborate on projects online. Figma’s web-based collaborative platform has gained loyal fans, and is widely popular with employees at major tech firms including Zoom, Airbnb and Coinbase.

Adobe, based in San Jose, California, is a software titan that sells tools for creating, publishing and promoting content, and managing documents.

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Adobe Chief Executive Officer, Shantanu Narayen hailed Figma’s business as ‘the future of work’ and said there were ‘tremendous opportunities’ in combining it with his company’s offerings, such as document reader Acrobat and online whiteboard Figjam.

The $20-billion exit marked a major win for Figma’s venture capital backers, including Index Ventures, Greylock Partners and Kleiner Perkins.

Adobe, based in San Jose, California, is a software titan that sells tools for creating, publishing and promoting content, and managing documents.

Meanwhile, Adobe expected the deal to be accretive to its earnings three years after its completion. Figma’s total addressable market would reach $16.5 billion by 2025 across design, white boarding and collaboration.

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Adobe is one of the most acquisitive companies in the Silicon Valley and has bought numerous businesses over the years, as it has looked to defend market share against competitors. Prior to Figma, its largest acquisition was that of software maker Marketo for $4.75 billion in 2018.

Meanwhile, Adobe’s fourth-quarter revenue forecast of $4.52 billion came in below the $4.58 billion estimated by analysts, according to Refinitiv data. The company’s third-quarter profit fell nearly 6 percent, reflecting the hit from a stronger U.S. dollar and higher costs.