TECHNOLOGY - July 28, 1994

Aldus to Sell FreeHand: The two computer software companies, which want to merge, agreed to sell one of their major products to settle Federal Trade Commission concerns that the combined company could dominate the $60-million computer illustration business. It was the first FTC challenge to a merger between software firms. Seattle-based Aldus Corp. will sell its sophisticated illustration program FreeHand to Altsys Corp. in order to merge with Adobe System Inc. of Mountain View, Calif. Altsys, based in Richardson, Tex., originally developed the FreeHand program. When the Adobe-Aldus merger plan was announced in March, the FTC objected that the combined company would have a monopoly on professional-illustration software, which enables designers to create free-form drawings on computers.