Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 9, 2026

List of acquisitions by Adobe

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. Apple Computer licensed PostScript in 1985 for use in its LaserWriter printers, which helped spark the desktop publishing revolution. 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.

Last revised
Jun 9, 2026
Read time
≈ 10 min
Length
2,373 w
Citations
86
Source
Wikipedia ↗
Adobe wordmark source ↗

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.

Adobe headquarters in San Jose source ↗

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, 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 Development.

Acquisitions

Number Company Country Acquired on Acquired for (USD) References
1 Emerald City Software  United States March 19, 1990 — 9
2 BluePoint Technologies  United States June 20, 1990 — 10
3 LaserTools-Language Technote 1  United States June 1, 1992 — 11
4 OCR Systems  United States June 29, 1992 — 12
5 Nonlinear Technologies  United States 1992 — 13
6 After Hours Software  United States 1993 — 13
7 Compumation  United States 1994 — 13
8 Aldus Corporation  United States August 31, 1994 $437,676,000 14
9 LaserTools  United States September 9, 1994 — 15
10 Photoshop  United States 1995 — 16
11 Frame Technology  United States October 30, 1995 $566,567,000 17
12 Ares Software  United States May 20, 1996 — 18
13 Sandcastle  United States March 14, 1997 $3,500,000 19
14 HyWay Ferranti  United Kingdom September 5, 1997 — 20
15 DigiDox  United States September 16, 1997 — 21
16 GoLive Systems  United States January 4, 1999 — 22
17 Fotiva  United States December 5, 2001 — 23
18 Accelionote 2  Canada April 15, 2002 $72,000,000 24
19 Syntrillium Software  United States May 2003 — 25
20 Yellow Dragon Software-Technote 3  United States November 10, 2003 — 26
21 Q-Link Technologies, Inc.  United States May 3, 2004 — 27
22 OKYZ  France December 7, 2004 — 28
23 Macromedia  United States December 3, 2005 $3,573,000,000 29
24 Navisware  United States December 16, 2005 — 30
25 Trade and Technologies France  France April 21, 2006 — 31
26 Pixmantec  Denmark June 26, 2006 — 32
27 InterAKT  Romania September 5, 2006 — 33
28 Serious Magic Inc.  United States October 19, 2006 — 34
29 Scene7  United States May 31, 2007 — 35
30 Virtual Ubiquity  United States October 1, 2007 — 36
31 YaWah  Denmark September 15, 2008 — 37
32 Business Catalyst  Australia August 31, 2009 — 38
33 Omniture  United States September 15, 2009 $1,800,000,000 39
34 Day Software  Switzerland July 28, 2010 $240,000,000 40
35 Demdex  United States January 18, 2011 — 41
36 EchoSign  United States July 18, 2011 — 42
37 Iridas Technology  Germany September 8, 2011 — 43
38 Nitobi  Canada October 3, 2011 — 44
39 Typekit  United States October 3, 2011 — 45
40 Auditude  United States November 1, 2011 $120,000,000 46
41 Efficient Frontier Technology  United States November 30, 2011 — 47
42 Behance Inc.  United States December 21, 2012 — 48
43 Neolane  France July 23, 2013 $600,000,000 4950
44 Satellite  United States July 31, 2013 —
45 Aviary  United States September 22, 2014 — 51
46 Fotolia  United States January 28, 2015 $800,000,000 52
47 Mixamo  United States June 1, 2015 — 53
48 Livefyre  United States May 10, 2016 — 54
49 TubeMogul  United States November 10, 2016 $540,000,000 55
50 Sayspring  United States April 16, 2018 — 56
51 Uru  United States April 29, 2018 — 57
52 Magento  United States May 21, 2018 $1,680,000,000 58
53 Marketo  United States September 20, 2018 $4,750,000,000 59
54 Allegorithmic  France January 23, 2019 — 60
55 Workfront  United States November 9, 2020 $1,500,000,000 61
56 Frame.io  United States October 7, 2021 $1,275,000,000 62
57 ContentCal  United Kingdom December 8, 2021 — 63
58 Abstract Notebooks  United States December 23, 2021 — 64
59 rephrase.ai  India 2023 — 65
60 Film Impact  Netherlands September 2025 — 66
61 Semrush  United States November 19, 2025 $1,900,000,000 67

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

  • Figma - After 15 months of regulatory review, the acquisition of Figma for $20 billion was abandoned after no longer seeing a path toward regulatory approval.6869

Stakes

Date Company Business Country Value (USD) Adjusted (USD) References
September 21, 1992 Verity Computer consulting  United States — — 70
March 1, 1994 Crosswise Applications software  United States — — 71
April 19, 1995 Siebel Systems Application services provider  United States — — 72
August 8, 1995 Fractal Design Graphics software  United States $2,000,000 $4,000,000 73
March 23, 2007 Skysoft Online digital music services  Republic of China $1,000,000 $2,000,000 74

Divestitures

Date Acquirer Target company Target business Acquirer country Value (USD) Adjusted (USD) References
November 1, 1991 Paracomp MacroMind Software  United States — — 75
March 28, 1996 — Luminousnote 4 Graphics software  United States — — 76
February 5, 1997 INSO MasterSoft Publishing software  United States $3,000,000 $6,000,000 77
March 24, 1999 Creative Internet Solutions ChangeMedia Internet service provider  United States — — 78
May 20, 1999 Calian Technologies Ltd. Why Interactive Multi-media company  Canada $4,360,000 $8,000,000 79
August 30, 1999 Lotus Development Macromedia Pathware Internet software  United States — — 80
Notes

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

See also

References

References

  1. Blitstein, Ryan (2006-10-30). "How Adobe launched a revolution". San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  2. LePage, Rick (2007-09-11). "Opinion: Adobe's DNA is part of Apple". Macworld. Archived from the original on 2012-01-04. Retrieved 2008-10-19.
  3. Lewis, Peter H. (1994-03-16). "Adobe and Aldus Plan a $500 Million Merger". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  4. Lewis, Jay B. (1998-04-13). "Adobe Makes a Move for the Future Fremont Site". Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
  5. "Inside Adobe's New Digital Negative Format". Macworld. 2004-09-30. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  6. "Adobe Systems Announces Adobe FrameMaker for Windows 95 and NT". PR Newswire. 1996-06-03.
  7. Cohen, Peter (2008-04-28). "Adobe Discontinues GoLive". PC World. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  8. "Adobe Audition 1.0 sounds like a new program, but this multitrack recorder/editor is the offspring of Syntrillium's Cool Edit Pro 2.1". PC Magazine. 2003-11-25.
  9. "Adobe Systems Inc acquires Emerald City Software". Thomson Financial. Archived from the original on 2012-02-14. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  10. "Adobe Systems Inc acquires BluePoint Technologies". Thomson Financial. Archived from the original on 2012-02-14. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  11. "Adobe Systems Inc acquires LaserTools-Language Tech from LaserTools Corp". Thomson Financial. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  12. "Adobe Systems Inc acquires OCR Systems Inc". Thomson Financial. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  13. "Adobe Annual Report 1994" (PDF). Adobe. Retrieved 2023-12-06. p. 36.
  14. "Adobe Annual Report 1994" (PDF). Retrieved 2023-12-06. p. 31.
  15. "Adobe Systems Inc acquires LaserTools Corp". Thomson Financial. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  16. "Adobe Systems Inc acquires Photoshop". CNET. Retrieved 2010-02-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  17. "Adobe Systems Inc acquires Frame Technology Corp". Thomson Financial. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  18. "Adobe Systems Inc acquires Ares Software Corp". Thomson Financial. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  19. "Adobe Systems Inc acquires Sandcastle Inc". Thomson Financial. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  20. "Adobe Systems Inc acquires HyWay Ferranti". Thomson Financial. Retrieved 2008-10-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  21. "Adobe Systems Inc acquires DigiDox Inc". Thomson Financial. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  22. "Adobe Systems Inc acquires GoLive Systems Inc". Thomson Financial. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  23. "Adobe Systems Inc acquires Fotiva Inc". Thomson Financial. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  24. "Adobe Systems Inc acquires Accelio Corp from Adobe Systems Canada Inc". Thomson Financial. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  25. "Cool Edit Pro is now Adobe Audition". Adobe. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  26. "Adobe Systems Inc acquires Yellow Dragon Software-Tech from Yellow Dragon Software Corp". Thomson Financial. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  27. "Adobe Acquires Q-Link Technologies". Adobe. Archived from the original on 2004-05-07. Retrieved 2004-05-04.
  28. "Adobe Systems Inc acquires OKYZ SA". Thomson Financial. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  29. "Adobe Systems Inc acquires Macromedia Inc". Thomson Financial. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  30. "Adobe Systems Inc acquires Navisware". Thomson Financial. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  31. "Adobe Systems Inc acquires Trade and Technologies France". Thomson Financial. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  32. "Adobe Systems Inc acquires Pixmantec ApS". Thomson Financial. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  33. "Adobe Systems Inc acquires InterAKT". Thomson Financial. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  34. "Adobe Systems Inc acquires Serious Magic Inc". Thomson Financial. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  35. "Adobe Systems Inc acquires Scene7 Inc". Thomson Financial. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  36. "Adobe to Acquire Virtual Ubiquity". Archived from the original on 2008-09-09. Retrieved 2008-10-01.
  37. "Adobe Systems Inc acquires YaWah ApS". Thomson Financial. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  38. "Adobe Buys Business Catalyst / GoodBarry". TechCrunch. 31 August 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-16.
  39. "Adobe To Acquire Omniture For Approximately $1.8 Billion". TechCrunch. 15 September 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-16.
  40. "Adobe Adds Leading Web Content Management Software to its Portfolio of Solutions to Create, Deliver and Optimize Customer Experiences". Adobe. Archived from the original on 2010-07-30. Retrieved 2010-07-28.
  41. "Adobe Acquires Demdex – Brings Audience Optimization to $109 Billion Global Online Ad Market". Omniture. Retrieved 2011-01-28.
  42. "Adobe Acquires EchoSign – Leading Web-based Signature Solution Joins Document Exchange Services Platform". Adobe. Archived from the original on 2020-08-03. Retrieved 2011-07-18.
  43. "Adobe Acquires IRIDAS Technology Company Extends Leadership in Professional Video with the Acquisition of Premium Tools for Digital Color Grading and Enhancement". Adobe. Archived from the original on 2011-09-25. Retrieved 2011-09-08.
  44. "Nitobi Enters Into Acquisition Agreement with Adobe". Adobe. Archived from the original on 2012-02-18. Retrieved 2012-01-20.
  45. "Adobe acquires Typekit". Typekit. Archived from the original on 2012-02-07. Retrieved 2012-02-10.
  46. "Adobe acquires video ad platform Auditude for $120M (updated)". November 2011.
  47. "Adobe Acquires Efficient Frontier To Boost Its Digital Marketing Solutions". 30 November 2011.
  48. "Adobe Acquired Portfolio Service Behance For More Than $150 Million In Cash And Stock". 21 December 2012.
  49. "Adobe Completes Acquisition of Neolane".
  50. "Adobe to Buy Neolane for $600 Million to Add Marketing Tools". Bloomberg. June 28, 2013 – via www.bloomberg.com.
  51. "Adobe Acquires Photo-Editing Platform Aviary". Techcrunch. 22 September 2014.
  52. "Adobe Completes Acquisition of Fotolia". Adobe Systems.
  53. Systems, Adobe Systems. "Unlocking The Power of 3D for The Creative Community – Adobe Acquires Mixamo". Adobe Systems.
  54. "Adobe Completes Acquisition of Livefyre | Adobe". Adobe Digital Marketing Blog. 2016-05-10. Retrieved 2016-08-10.
  55. "Adobe is acquiring ad tech company TubeMogul for $540 million". Business Insider. Retrieved 2016-11-10.
  56. "Adobe Bets on Voice with Sayspring Acquisition". Archived from the original on 2018-04-18. Retrieved 2018-04-18.
  57. "Adobe acquires Uru, an AI startup that embeds ads in videos". Retrieved 2018-12-22.
  58. Miller, Ron (2018-05-21). "Adobe to acquire Magento for $1.68B". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2020-12-23.
  59. "Adobe gets its company, snaring Marketo for $4.75 billion". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 2020-07-01. Retrieved 2018-09-22.
  60. Gagliordi, Natalie (2019-01-23). "Adobe acquires 3D texture firm Allegorithmic". ZDNet. Retrieved 2020-12-23.
  61. Miller, Ron (2020-11-09). "Adobe acquires marketing workflow startup Workfront for $1.5B". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2020-12-23.
  62. "Adobe to Acquire Frame.io". businesswire. Retrieved 2021-08-19.
  63. "Adobe buys social media marketing startup ContentCal". 2021-12-08. Retrieved 2024-02-13.
  64. "The next chapter for Abstract Notebooks: Adobe". www.abstract.com. Archived from the original on 2022-01-10. Retrieved 2022-01-10.
  65. "Adobe buys Indian generative AI startup Rephrase.ai". timesofindia.indiatimes.com. 23 November 2023. Archived from the original on 2023-12-04. Retrieved 2025-01-27.
  66. Simmons, Scott (2025-09-09). "Adobe acquires Film Impact, brings it Premiere Pro 25.5 by Scott Simmons - ProVideo Coalition". Retrieved 2026-02-23.
  67. Roth, Emma (November 19, 2025). "Adobe to acquire digital marketing platform Semrush for $1.9 billion". The Verge.
  68. Lombardo, Cara (2022-09-15). "Adobe to Buy Collaboration-Software Company Figma for About $20 Billion". The Wall Street Journal.
  69. Weatherbed, Jess (2023-12-18). "Adobe abandons $20 billion acquisition of Figma". The Verge. Retrieved 2023-12-18.
  70. "Adobe Systems Inc acquires a minority stake in Verity Inc". Thomson Financial. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  71. "Adobe Systems Inc acquires a minority stake in Crosswise Corp". Thomson Financial. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  72. "Adobe Ventures acquires a minority stake in Siebel Systems Inc". Thomson Financial. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  73. "Adobe Ventures acquires a minority stake in Fractal Design Corp". Thomson Financial. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  74. "Adobe Sys Software Ireland Ltd acquires a minority stake in Skysoft Co Ltd". Thomson Financial. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  75. "Paracomp Inc acquires Macromind Inc from Adobe Systems Inc". Thomson Financial. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  76. "Investor Group acquires Luminous Corp(Adobe Systems) from Adobe Systems Inc". Thomson Financial. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  77. "INSO Corp acquires Adobe Systems-MasterSoft Prods from Adobe Systems Inc". Thomson Financial. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  78. "Creative Internet Solutions acquires ChangeMedia(Allaire Corp) from Adobe Systems Inc". Thomson Financial. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  79. "Calian Technology Ltd acquires Why Interactive Inc from Adobe Systems Inc". Thomson Financial. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  80. "Lotus Development Corp(IBM) acquires Macromedia Inc-Pathware Bus from Adobe Systems Inc". Thomson Financial. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
External links