Microsoft to buy Adobe?

Right now there's no confirmation, but the one thing that should interest you is the news caused Adobe Systems stock to rise 17% before falling slightly down to 11.5% higher than before the rumour. Microsoft shares rose by 0.4%.

News broke from The New York Times as they reported Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer had a secret meeting with Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen at Adobe's San Fransisco offices "recently".

The two had supposedly talked about Apple's dominance in mobile phones and discussed various options to attack that, with the inclusion of Microsoft purchasing Adobe.

Both Microsoft and Adobe have declined comment.

A deal like this could be worth north of $15 billion based on Adobe's current market value - it would also give Microsoft a much large piece of the Internet media and mobile platform pies by getting Adobe's obviously popular Flash player - which is used by millions in websites for video and graphics.