The all-stock deal, announced Monday, is designed to create a better-stocked source of tools for building and distributing multimedia content across a range of operating systems and devices, the companies said. They also stressed that the merger will enable them to expand more rapidly into the market for audio and video applications for handhelds and other gadgets.

In a conference call, Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen said that the buyout creates a more robust company capable of delivering new technology into a number of emerging markets.

“This acquisition strengthens Adobe’s mission of helping people and organizations communicate better,” Chizen said. “Whether it is documents, images, the Web, TV or new wireless and other non-PC devices, the methods we use to access this information continue to evolve.”

Market reaction to the deal was mixed. In morning trading, Adobe was down $7.22, or 12 percent, to $53.44. Macromedia was up $2.55, or 8 percent, to $36.

Adobe is best known for its PDF, or Portable Document Format, technology for presenting text files online. Macromedia’s flagship product is the Flash animation software.

From CNET