List of acquisitions by Adobe

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Adobe Inc. is an American computer software company headquartered in San Jose, California. In 1982, John Warnock and Charles Geschke left Xerox PARC and established Adobe to develop and sell the PostScript page description language. [1] Apple Computer licensed PostScript in 1985 for use in its LaserWriter printers, which helped spark the desktop publishing revolution. [2] The company has acquired 25 companies, purchased stakes in five, and divested six, most of which were software companies. Of the companies that Adobe has acquired, 18 were based in the United States. Adobe has not released the financial details for most of these mergers and acquisitions.

Contents

Adobe headquarters in San Jose Adobe HQ.jpg
Adobe headquarters in San Jose

Adobe's first acquisition was Emerald City Software in March 1990. In August 1994, the company acquired Aldus Corporation, a Seattle-based software company credited with creating the desktop publishing industry with its PageMaker software. [3] The company's products were integrated into Adobe's product line later in the year, and re-branded as Adobe PageMaker and Adobe After Effects; [4] Aldus also owned the TIFF file format, transferring ownership to Adobe. [5] In October 1995, Adobe acquired the desktop publishing software company Frame Technology for US$566 million, and re-branded its FrameMaker software to Adobe FrameMaker. [6] Adobe acquired GoLive Systems in January 1999 and obtained its CyberStudio HTML editor software, releasing it as Adobe GoLive. [7] In May 2003, Adobe acquired Syntrillium Software and its digital audio editor software Cool Edit Pro, and merged it into its product line, re-releasing it as Adobe Audition. [8]

In the 1990s, Adobe purchased a minority stake in four companies, and it purchased a stake in one company in the 2000s. Adobe has also divested six companies, in which parts of the company are sold to another company. All of its divestments were made in the 1990s, with its most recent divestment made in August 1999 when it sold Macromedia Pathware to Lotus Software.

Acquisitions

NumberCompanyCountryAcquired onAcquired for (USD)References
1Emerald City SoftwareFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States March 19, 1990 [9]
2BluePoint TechnologiesFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States June 20, 1990 [10]
3LaserTools-Language Tech [note 1] Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States June 1, 1992 [11]
4 OCR Systems Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States June 29, 1992 [12]
5Nonlinear TechnologiesFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States 1992 [13]
6After Hours SoftwareFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States 1993 [13]
7CompumationFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States 1994 [13]
8 Aldus Corporation Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States August 31, 1994$437,676,000 [14]
9LaserToolsFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States September 9, 1994 [15]
10PhotoshopFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States 1995 [16]
11 Frame Technology Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States October 30, 1995$566,567,000 [17]
12Ares SoftwareFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States May 20, 1996 [18]
13SandcastleFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States March 14, 1997$3,500,000 [19]
14HyWay FerrantiFlag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom September 5, 1997 [20]
15DigiDoxFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States September 16, 1997 [21]
16 GoLive SystemsFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States January 4, 1999 [22]
17FotivaFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States December 5, 2001 [23]
18Accelio [note 2] Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada April 15, 2002$72,000,000 [24]
19Syntrillium SoftwareFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States May 2003 [25]
20Yellow Dragon Software-Tech [note 3] Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States November 10, 2003 [26]
21Q-Link Technologies, Inc.Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States May 3, 2004 [27]
22OKYZFlag of France.svg  France December 7, 2004 [28]
23 Macromedia Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States December 3, 2005$3,573,000,000 [29]
24NaviswareFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States December 16, 2005 [30]
25Trade and Technologies FranceFlag of France.svg  France April 21, 2006 [31]
26PixmantecFlag of Denmark.svg  Denmark June 26, 2006 [32]
27InterAKTFlag of Romania.svg  Romania September 5, 2006 [33]
28 Serious Magic Inc. Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States October 19, 2006 [34]
29 Scene7 Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States May 31, 2007 [35]
30Virtual UbiquityFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States October 1, 2007 [36]
31YaWahFlag of Denmark.svg  Denmark September 15, 2008 [37]
32 Business Catalyst Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia August 31, 2009 [38]
33 Omniture Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States September 15, 2009$1,800,000,000 [39]
34 Day Software Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg  Switzerland July 28, 2010$240,000,000 [40]
35DemdexFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States January 18, 2011 [41]
36 EchoSign Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States July 18, 2011 [42]
37Iridas TechnologyFlag of Germany.svg  Germany September 8, 2011 [43]
38NitobiFlag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada October 3, 2011 [44]
39 Typekit Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States October 3, 2011 [45]
40AuditudeFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States November 1, 2011$120,000,000 [46]
41Efficient Frontier TechnologyFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States November 30, 2011 [47]
42 Behance Inc. Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States December 21, 2012 [48]
43 Neolane Flag of France.svg  France July 23, 2013$600,000,000 [49] [50]
44SatelliteFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States July 31, 2013
45 Aviary Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States September 22, 2014 [51]
46 Fotolia Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States January 28, 2015$800,000,000 [52]
47 Mixamo Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States June 1, 2015 [53]
48 Livefyre Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States May 10, 2016 [54]
49 TubeMogul Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States November 10, 2016$540,000,000 [55]
50SayspringFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States April 16, 2018 [56]
51UruFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States April 29, 2018 [57]
52 Magento Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States May 21, 2018$1,680,000,000 [58]
53 Marketo Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States September 20, 2018$4,750,000,000 [59]
54 Allegorithmic Flag of France.svg  France January 23, 2019 [60]
55 Workfront Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States November 9, 2020$1,500,000,000 [61]
56Frame.ioFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States October 7, 2021$1,275,000,000 [62]
57ContentCalFlag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom December 8, 2021 [63]
58Abstract NotebooksFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States December 23, 2021 [64]

Indirect acquisitions

Adobe also owns the assets of numerous companies, through less direct means, through the mergers or acquisitions of companies later acquired by Adobe.

Failed acquisitions

Stakes

DateCompanyBusinessCountryValue (USD)References
September 21, 1992VerityComputer consultingFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States [67]
March 1, 1994CrosswiseApplications softwareFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States [68]
April 19, 1995 Siebel Systems Application services providerFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States [69]
August 8, 1995Fractal DesignGraphics softwareFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States $2,000,000 [70]
March 23, 2007SkysoftOnline digital music servicesFlag of the Republic of China.svg  Republic of China $1,000,000 [71]

Divestitures

DateAcquirerTarget companyTarget businessAcquirer countryValue (USD)References
November 1, 1991Paracomp MacroMind SoftwareFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States [72]
March 28, 1996Luminous [note 4] Graphics softwareFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States [73]
February 5, 1997INSOMasterSoftPublishing softwareFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States $3,000,000 [74]
March 24, 1999Creative Internet SolutionsChangeMediaInternet service providerFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States [75]
May 20, 1999 Calian Technologies Ltd. Why InteractiveMulti-media companyFlag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada $4,360,000 [76]
August 30, 1999 Lotus Development Macromedia PathwareInternet softwareFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States [77]

Notes

  1. Acquired from LaserTools
  2. Acquired from Adobe Systems Canada
  3. Acquired from Yellow Dragon Software
  4. Adobe retained a 19.9% stake in Luminous

See also

Related Research Articles

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