Adobe Buys Marketing-Automation Firm Marketo for $4.75 Billion
September 20 2018 - 4:36PM
Dow Jones News
By Alexandra Bruell
Adobe Systems Inc. agreed to acquire marketing-automation firm
Marketo for $4.75 billion, its largest acquisition ever and the
latest sign of its ambition to become a one-stop-shop for
marketers.
San Mateo, Calif.-based Marketo helps brands track their
customers' actions online, from getting an email to purchasing a
product, providing them with information they can use to serve more
personalized promotions.
The deal is expected to add scale to Adobe's existing
marketing-technology capabilities. It also will bolster the
company's clout with business-to-business brands, which make up the
bulk of Marketo's customer base. Reuters earlier reported that
Adobe and Marketo were in talks last week.
Adobe has been focusing on building and buying capabilities for
business-to-consumer brands, and wants to expand relationships with
its existing clients in categories like telecommunications and
financial services that have both business-to-consumer and
business-to-business divisions, Chief Executive Officer Shantanu
Narayen said in an interview. "We thought we had a really unique
opportunity to leverage everything we had done with content
management and advertising and analytics to serve a broader set of
customers," he said.
Marketo was bought by private-equity firm Vista Equity Partners
in 2016 for $1.79 billion. Marketo generated revenue of
approximately $321 million in 2017, according to Moody's Investors
Service Inc.
Adobe is known for products like Photoshop and Adobe Reader, but
the company's Experience Cloud, which houses its marketing
technology and data and analytics products, is growing at a fast
clip, the company said. The Experience Cloud reported annual
revenue of $2.03 billion in 2017, according to a financial
filing.
Marketo CEO Steve Lucas will continue to lead the Marketo team,
reporting to Brad Rencher, Adobe's executive vice president and
general manager of digital experience.
The transaction is expected to close during the fourth quarter
of Adobe's 2018 fiscal year.
Adobe has acquired a number of marketing automation firms in
recent years. The company made its first big bet on digital
marketing services in 2009 with it acquisition of data-analytics
firm Omniture for $1.8 billion. In 2010, it bought Day Software,
which allows customers to build websites and apps, for $240 million
And in 2016, it acquired TubeMogul, a company that helps brands
plan and buy ad space across digital and TV platforms, for $540
million.
This year, it acquired commerce technology firm Magento for
$1.68 billion.
Write to Alexandra Bruell at alexandra.bruell@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 20, 2018 16:21 ET (20:21 GMT)
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