Lets just suppose Adobe were the intended buyer… FCP and Premier Pro are almost even on the playing field – you can’t have a company with two stellar editing platforms – one needs to be elevated and the other brought down a few pegs. Does Adobe have a prosumer editing package anymore? So now there would be iMovie Pro for the consumer / prosumer and Premier Pro for the full time editor. Audition to replace STP and After Effects for Motion. Color could stay around as a stand alone grading tool and compressor would / could get absorbed by Adobe Media Encoder. All at 64 bit.
At least this would make more sense than the idea that Apple just didn’t follow though on the re-development of Final Cut at this stage. The re-design took a long time and they had input from industry professionals. There has to be another reason… Then again this is just all speculation. However, I am taking another look at Premier Pro CS 5.5… Could be fun.
Just another thought