Macromedia

Macromedia is a software company engaged in the field of graphic and web development. The company was founded in 1992 and has grown rapidly in the 1990s and early 2000s. In December 2005, Macromedia acquired a rival company, Adobe Systems, Adobe temporary but is still using Macromedia name on a number of programs.

Macromedia was established in 1992 through the merger of Authorware Inc.. (manufacturer of Authorware) and MacroMind-Paracomp (Macromind manufacturers Director). Until the mid-1990s, Macromedia Director is used to produce CD-ROMs and information kiosks Macromedia is still a superior product, but with increasing popularity of the World Wide Web creating Macromedia Shockwave, a web browser plugin for the Director and in 1996 acquired two companies web-oriented, FutureWave software (which makes FutureSplash Animator - which later evolved into Flash) and iBand software (makers of HTML authoring software - which is used as a basis for developing Dreamweaver).

Macromedia acquired Allaire in 2001, which develops ColdFusion before eventually own in 2005 Macromedia was purchased by Adobe.