Thoughts on Frame.io and Adobe

Now I’ve gotten over the surprise of the sale price, it really doesn’t matter what I think. What it comes down to this:

To Adobe, Frame.io is worth $1.275 billion. Ultimately that’s the bottom line. Adobe invest in anything they think will add value to the company and pay what makes sense for them.

I’ll admit, the ascribed value is close to double what I would have expected for a Frame.io exit, and that was a bit of a shock. What I wasn’t taking into account is that something created and working, is vastly more valuable than the best idea ever. Frame.io took an idea and executed, creating an entirely new workflow in Camera2Cloud.

I’m sure Camera2Cloud is where Adobe see a lot of the value, and rightly so. Elegant review and approval is a neat achievement, adding C2C has truly created something new and elegant. As technology develops what is currently a rarefied workflow will become more and more accessible. I can see why Adobe would want to be leading there.

No matter how talented your engineering team is, there’s no guarantee that an Adobe team could have replicated what Frame.io have already completed. Going it yourself, has inherent time-to-market disadvantages, and an ongoing problem playing “catch up” with the pioneer.

I can’t pretend I understand how all those variables are ascribed a value to get to the final deal, but I don’t have to! The deal was done and both parties are happy.

So, unqualified congratulations to Emery Wells and the Frame.io team.