The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Justice has apparently decided to look at the Adobe-Macromedia merger with a second set of eyes, as it has requested additional information from both companies about their web design and vecto graphics illustration products.

The $3.4 billion merger, announced earlier in the year, would combine two companies that have several overlapping products, but which would also be under renewed competitive pressure from Microsoft, which recently announced a new web design beta for its upcoming Acrylic product. (see http://mxdj.sys-con.com/read/99323.htm)

The Adobe-Macromedia merger will also presumably lead to a richer .pdf format that could conceivably be used as the core of basic websites.

Adobe has said that it still expects the merger to be completed by fall 2005.

The new DOJ action is a second request, made after preliminary information was already filed by Adobe and Macromedia. Should the DOJ decide to object to this merger, the deal could still be completed, as the DOJ does not have a unilateral final word on the subject. The DOJ objected to the Oracle-Peoplesoft merger, for example, yet the companies are now unified under the Oracle banner.