Adobe Systems
Encyclopedia
Adobe Systems Incorporated (icon ) is an American computer software company founded in 1982 and headquartered in San Jose
, California, United States. The company has historically focused upon the creation of multimedia and creativity software products, with a more-recent foray towards rich Internet application
software development
.
Adobe was founded in December 1982 by John Warnock
and Charles Geschke
, who established the company after leaving Xerox PARC
in order to develop and sell the PostScript
page description language
. In 1985, Apple Computer licensed PostScript for use in its LaserWriter
printers
, which helped spark the desktop publishing
revolution. The company name Adobe comes from Adobe Creek
in Los Altos
, California, which ran behind the house of one of the company's founders. Adobe acquired its former competitor, Macromedia
, in December 2005, which added newer software products and platforms such as Coldfusion, Dreamweaver, Flash
and Flex
to its product portfolio.
As of 2010, Adobe Systems has 9,117 employees, about 40% of whom work in San Jose. Adobe also has major development operations in Orlando
, Seattle, San Francisco, Orem
, Minneapolis, Waltham
, San Luis Obispo
in United States; Ottawa
, Canada; Hamburg
, Germany; Noida
, Bengaluru
, India; Bucharest
, Romania; Beijing, China.
Adobe's first products after PostScript
were digital fonts
, which they released in a proprietary format called Type 1. Apple subsequently developed a competing standard, TrueType
, which provided full scalability and precise control of the pixel
pattern created by the font's outlines, and licensed it to Microsoft
. Adobe responded by publishing the Type 1 specification and releasing Adobe Type Manager
, software that allowed WYSIWYG
scaling of Type 1 fonts on screen, like TrueType
, although without the precise pixel-level control. But these moves were too late to stop the rise of TrueType
. Although Type 1 remained the standard in the graphics/publishing market, TrueType
became the standard for business and the average Windows user. In 1996, Adobe and Microsoft announced the OpenType
font format, and in 2003 Adobe completed converting its Type 1 font library to OpenType
. Adobe's corporate logo was designed by Marva Warnock, wife of John Warnock, who is also a graphic designer.
In the mid-1980s, Adobe entered the consumer software
market with Adobe Illustrator
, a vector
-based drawing program for the Apple Macintosh. Illustrator, which grew from the firm's in-house font-development software, helped popularize PostScript-enabled laser printers. Unlike MacDraw
, then the standard Macintosh vector drawing program, Illustrator described shapes with more flexible Bézier curve
s, providing unprecedented accuracy. Font rendering in Illustrator, however, was left to the Macintosh's QuickDraw
libraries and would not be superseded by a PostScript-like approach until Adobe released Adobe Type Manager.
In 1989, Adobe introduced what was to become its flagship
product, a graphics editing program for the Macintosh called Photoshop
. Stable and full-featured, Photoshop 1.0 was ably marketed by Adobe and soon dominated the market.
In 1993, Adobe introduced PDF, the Portable Document Format, and its Adobe Acrobat and Reader
software. PDF is now an International Standard: ISO 32000-1:2008. The technology is adopted worldwide as a common medium for electronic documents.
Arguably, one of Adobe's few missteps on the Macintosh platform was their failure to develop their own desktop publishing
(DTP) program. Instead, Aldus
with PageMaker
in 1985 and Quark
with QuarkXPress
in 1987 gained early leads in the DTP market. Adobe was also slow to address the emerging Windows
DTP market. However, Adobe made great strides in that market with the release of InDesign
and its bundled Creative Suite
offering. In a failure to predict the direction of computing, Adobe released a complete version of Illustrator for Steve Jobs
' ill-fated NeXT
system, but a poorly-produced version for Windows.
Despite these missteps, licensing fees from the PostScript interpreter allowed Adobe to outlast or acquire many of its rivals in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In December 1991, Adobe released Adobe Premiere, which Adobe rebranded to Adobe Premiere Pro
in 2003. In 1994, Adobe acquired Aldus and added Adobe PageMaker
and Adobe After Effects
to its production line later in the year; it also controls the TIFF file format. In 1995, Adobe added Adobe FrameMaker
, the long-document DTP application, to its production line after Adobe acquired Frame Technology Corp. In 1999, Adobe introduced Adobe InCopy
as a direct competitor to QuarkCopyDesk.
; in 1994, the company acquired Aldus Corporation
. On May 30, 1997, Adobe reincorporated in Delaware by merging with and into Adobe Systems (Delaware), which was incorporated on May 9, 1997. Adobe Systems Incorporated (Delaware) was the surviving corporation and changed its name to Adobe Systems Incorporated concurrently with the merger.
The company acquired GoLive Systems, Inc. and released Adobe GoLive
in 1999 and began shipping Adobe InDesign
as a direct competitor to QuarkXPress
and as an eventual replacement for PageMaker. In May 2003, Adobe acquired Syntrillium Software, adding Adobe Audition
to its product line. In December 2004, French company OKYZ S.A., makers of 3D collaboration software, was acquired. This acquisition added 3D technology and expertise to the Adobe Intelligent Document Platform.
On December 12, 2005 Adobe acquired its main rival Macromedia
in a stock swap
valued at about $3.4 billion, adding Adobe ColdFusion, Adobe Contribute
, Adobe Captivate
, Adobe Acrobat Connect (formerly Macromedia Breeze), Adobe Director
, Adobe Dreamweaver, Adobe Fireworks, Adobe Flash
, FlashPaper, Adobe Flex
, Macromedia FreeHand
, Macromedia HomeSite
, Macromedia JRun
, Adobe Presenter, and Macromedia Authorware
to Adobe's production line.
In January 2007, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom was released to assist photographers in managing digital images and post production work. The product was intended as a competitor to Apple's Aperture
in the RAW image editing market. Adobe acquired Scene7
in May of the same year. The company makes an image processing and display platform used in many retail sites on the web. In July, Adobe released Soundbooth
. This product was not intended to replace the existing Adobe Audition
but merely to provide an environment for professionals not specializing in audio. On August 3, 2007, the company announced their plans to discontinue development of Authorware, the “visual authoring tool for creating rich-media e-learning applications for delivery on corporate networks, CD/DVD, and the Web.” Authorware was one of the development tools acquired in the Macromedia/Adobe merger. It was replaced by Adobe Captivate. In October, the company acquired Virtual Ubiquity, along with its online word processor, Buzzword. On November 12, 2007, CEO, Bruce Chizen
resigned. Effective December 1, he was replaced by Shantanu Narayen
, Adobe's current president and Chief Operating Officer. Bruce Chizen served out his term on Adobe's Board of Directors, and then continued in a strategic advisory role until the end of Adobe's 2008 fiscal year.
Adobe released Adobe Media Player in April 2008. On April 27, Adobe discontinued development and sales of its older HTML/web development software, GoLive
in favor of Dreamweaver. Adobe offered a discount on Dreamweaver for GoLive users and supports those who still use GoLive with online tutorials and migration assistance. On June 1, Adobe launched Acrobat.com
, a series of web application
s geared for collaborative work. Creative Suite 4, which includes Design, Web, Production Premium and Master Collection came out in October 2008 in six configurations at prices from about USD $1,700 to $2,500 or by individual application. The Windows version of Photoshop includes 64-bit processing. On December 3, 2008, Adobe laid off 600 of its employees (8% of the worldwide staff) citing the weak economic environment
.
Adobe announced two acquisitions in 2009: on August 29, they purchased Business Catalyst
., and on September 15, Adobe bought Omniture
. On November 10, the company laid off 680 employees. In 2010, Adobe announced it was investigating a "coordinated attack
" against corporate network systems in China, managed by the company. This same attack was also brought against Google
and over 20 other companies. Adobe announced the new Creative Suite series (CS5) launched globally Monday, April 12, 2010. New software such as Flash Catalyst and Business Catalyst
were also announced.
Adobe's 2010 was marked by continuing back-and-forth arguments with Apple over the latter's non-support for Adobe Flash on its iPhone, iPad and other products. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has claimed that Flash is not reliable or secure enough, while Adobe executives have argued that Apple wish to maintain control over the iOS platform.
In January 2011, Adobe acquired Demdex, Inc with the intent of adding Demdex's audience-optimization software to its online marketing suite.
At PhotoShop World 2011, Adobe unveiled a new mobile photo service. Carousel is a new application for iPhone, iPad and Mac that uses Photoshop Lightroom technology for users to adjust and fine-tune images on all platforms. Carousel will also allow users to automatically sync, share and browse photos.
On November 9, 2011 Adobe confirmed that they had ceased development of Flash for mobile devices. Instead they will be focusing on HTML 5, due to it having wider support and greater capabilities than Flash.
Server software
Formats
Web-hosted services
Web design programs
Video editing and visual effects
eLearning software
Organizational software
in 1986. Adobe's 2006 revenues were US$2.575 billion.
As of February 2007, Adobe's market capitalization
was roughly US$23 billion; as of August 2007, its shares were trading on the NASDAQ for around $40, with a P/E ratio of about 49 and EPS of about $0.82.
As of March 2008, Adobe's market capitalization was roughly $18 billion; its shares were trading on the NASDAQ for around $33, with a P/E ratio of about 27 and EPS of about $1.21.
As of April 2011, Adobe's market capitalization was roughly $17 billion; its shares were trading on the NASDAQ for around $33, with a P/E ratio of about 19.73 and EPS of about $1.70.
Adobe's fiscal years run from December to November. For example, the 2007 fiscal year ended on November 30, 2007.
has ranked Adobe as an outstanding place to work. Adobe was rated the fifth-best U.S. company to work for in 2003, sixth in 2004, 31st in 2007, 40th in 2008, and eleventh in 2009.
In May 2008, Adobe Systems India was ranked 19th of great places to work in India. In October 2008, Adobe Systems Canada Inc. was named one of "Canada's Top 100 Employers
" by Mediacorp Canada Inc., and was featured in Maclean's
newsmagazine.
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
, California, United States. The company has historically focused upon the creation of multimedia and creativity software products, with a more-recent foray towards rich Internet application
Rich Internet application
A Rich Internet Application is a Web application that has many of the characteristics of desktop application software, typically delivered either by way of a site-specific browser, via a browser plug-in, independent sandboxes, extensive use of JavaScript, or virtual machines...
software development
Software development
Software development is the development of a software product...
.
Adobe was founded in December 1982 by John Warnock
John Warnock
John Edward Warnock is an American computer scientist best known as the co-founder with Charles Geschke of Adobe Systems Inc., the graphics and publishing software company. Dr. Warnock was President of Adobe for his first two years and Chairman and CEO for his remaining sixteen years at the company...
and Charles Geschke
Charles Geschke
Charles Geschke, is best known as the 1982 co-founder with John Warnock of Adobe Systems Inc., the graphics and publishing software company.-Education:...
, who established the company after leaving Xerox PARC
Xerox PARC
PARC , formerly Xerox PARC, is a research and co-development company in Palo Alto, California, with a distinguished reputation for its contributions to information technology and hardware systems....
in order to develop and sell the PostScript
PostScript
PostScript is a dynamically typed concatenative programming language created by John Warnock and Charles Geschke in 1982. It is best known for its use as a page description language in the electronic and desktop publishing areas. Adobe PostScript 3 is also the worldwide printing and imaging...
page description language
Page description language
A page description language is a language that describes the appearance of a printed page in a higher level than an actual output bitmap. An overlapping term is printer control language, but it should not be confused as referring solely to Hewlett-Packard's PCL...
. In 1985, Apple Computer licensed PostScript for use in its LaserWriter
LaserWriter
The LaserWriter was a laser printer with built-in PostScript interpreter introduced by Apple in 1985. It was one of the first laser printers available to the mass market...
printers
Computer printer
In computing, a printer is a peripheral which produces a text or graphics of documents stored in electronic form, usually on physical print media such as paper or transparencies. Many printers are primarily used as local peripherals, and are attached by a printer cable or, in most new printers, a...
, which helped spark the desktop publishing
Desktop publishing
Desktop publishing is the creation of documents using page layout software on a personal computer.The term has been used for publishing at all levels, from small-circulation documents such as local newsletters to books, magazines and newspapers...
revolution. The company name Adobe comes from Adobe Creek
Adobe Creek (near Los Altos)
Adobe Creek is a northward-flowing stream originating on Black Mountain in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It courses through the cities of Los Altos Hills, Los Altos, and Palo Alto, culminating in southwest San Francisco Bay just west of the levee separating the Palo Alto Flood...
in Los Altos
Los Altos, California
Los Altos is a city at the southern end of the San Francisco Peninsula, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The city is in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population was 28,976 according to the 2010 census....
, California, which ran behind the house of one of the company's founders. Adobe acquired its former competitor, Macromedia
Macromedia
Macromedia was an American graphics and web development software company headquartered in San Francisco, California that produced such products as Flash and Dreamweaver. Its rival, Adobe Systems, acquired Macromedia on December 3, 2005 and controls the line of Macromedia...
, in December 2005, which added newer software products and platforms such as Coldfusion, Dreamweaver, Flash
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
and Flex
Adobe Flex
Adobe Flex is a software development kit released by Adobe Systems for the development and deployment of cross-platform rich Internet applications based on the Adobe Flash platform...
to its product portfolio.
As of 2010, Adobe Systems has 9,117 employees, about 40% of whom work in San Jose. Adobe also has major development operations in Orlando
Orlando, Florida
Orlando is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan area. According to the 2010 US Census, the city had a population of 238,300, making Orlando the 79th largest city in the United States...
, Seattle, San Francisco, Orem
Orem, Utah
Orem is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States, in the north-central part of the state. It is adjacent to Provo, Lindon, and Vineyard and is about south of Salt Lake City. Orem is one of the principal cities of the Provo-Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Utah and...
, Minneapolis, Waltham
Waltham, Massachusetts
Waltham is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, was an early center for the labor movement, and major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, the city was a prototype for 19th century industrial city planning,...
, San Luis Obispo
San Luis Obispo, California
San Luis Obispo is a city in California, located roughly midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles on the Central Coast. Founded in 1772 by Spanish Fr. Junipero Serra, San Luis Obispo is one of California’s oldest communities...
in United States; Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
, Canada; Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, Germany; Noida
Noida
Noida , short for the New Okhla Industrial Development Area, is an area in India under the management of the New Okhla Industrial Development Authority . Noida came into administrative existence on 17 April 1976 and celebrates 17 April as "Noida Day". It was set up as part of an urbanization...
, Bengaluru
Bangalore
Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
, India; Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
, Romania; Beijing, China.
History
PostScript
PostScript is a dynamically typed concatenative programming language created by John Warnock and Charles Geschke in 1982. It is best known for its use as a page description language in the electronic and desktop publishing areas. Adobe PostScript 3 is also the worldwide printing and imaging...
were digital fonts
Typeface
In typography, a typeface is the artistic representation or interpretation of characters; it is the way the type looks. Each type is designed and there are thousands of different typefaces in existence, with new ones being developed constantly....
, which they released in a proprietary format called Type 1. Apple subsequently developed a competing standard, TrueType
TrueType
TrueType is an outline font standard originally developed by Apple Computer in the late 1980s as a competitor to Adobe's Type 1 fonts used in PostScript...
, which provided full scalability and precise control of the pixel
Pixel
In digital imaging, a pixel, or pel, is a single point in a raster image, or the smallest addressable screen element in a display device; it is the smallest unit of picture that can be represented or controlled....
pattern created by the font's outlines, and licensed it to Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
. Adobe responded by publishing the Type 1 specification and releasing Adobe Type Manager
Adobe Type Manager
Adobe Type Manager is the name of a family of computer programs created and marketed by Adobe Systems for use with their Type 1 fonts. The current version is Adobe ATM Light 4.1.2, available from Adobe's FTP .-Apple Macintosh:...
, software that allowed WYSIWYG
WYSIWYG
WYSIWYG is an acronym for What You See Is What You Get. The term is used in computing to describe a system in which content displayed onscreen during editing appears in a form closely corresponding to its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product...
scaling of Type 1 fonts on screen, like TrueType
TrueType
TrueType is an outline font standard originally developed by Apple Computer in the late 1980s as a competitor to Adobe's Type 1 fonts used in PostScript...
, although without the precise pixel-level control. But these moves were too late to stop the rise of TrueType
TrueType
TrueType is an outline font standard originally developed by Apple Computer in the late 1980s as a competitor to Adobe's Type 1 fonts used in PostScript...
. Although Type 1 remained the standard in the graphics/publishing market, TrueType
TrueType
TrueType is an outline font standard originally developed by Apple Computer in the late 1980s as a competitor to Adobe's Type 1 fonts used in PostScript...
became the standard for business and the average Windows user. In 1996, Adobe and Microsoft announced the OpenType
OpenType
OpenType is a format for scalable computer fonts. It was built on its predecessor TrueType, retaining TrueType's basic structure and adding many intricate data structures for prescribing typographic behavior...
font format, and in 2003 Adobe completed converting its Type 1 font library to OpenType
OpenType
OpenType is a format for scalable computer fonts. It was built on its predecessor TrueType, retaining TrueType's basic structure and adding many intricate data structures for prescribing typographic behavior...
. Adobe's corporate logo was designed by Marva Warnock, wife of John Warnock, who is also a graphic designer.
In the mid-1980s, Adobe entered the consumer software
Computer software
Computer software, or just software, is a collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it....
market with Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor developed and marketed by Adobe Systems. Illustrator is similar in scope, intended market, and functionality to its competitors, CorelDraw, Xara Designer Pro and Macromedia FreeHand....
, a vector
Vector graphics
Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygon, which are all based on mathematical expressions, to represent images in computer graphics...
-based drawing program for the Apple Macintosh. Illustrator, which grew from the firm's in-house font-development software, helped popularize PostScript-enabled laser printers. Unlike MacDraw
MacDraw
MacDraw was a vector based drawing application released along with the first Apple Macintosh systems in 1984. MacDraw was one of the first WYSIWYG drawing programs that could be used in collaboration with MacWrite. MacDraw was useful for drawing technical diagrams and floorplans...
, then the standard Macintosh vector drawing program, Illustrator described shapes with more flexible Bézier curve
Bézier curve
A Bézier curve is a parametric curve frequently used in computer graphics and related fields. Generalizations of Bézier curves to higher dimensions are called Bézier surfaces, of which the Bézier triangle is a special case....
s, providing unprecedented accuracy. Font rendering in Illustrator, however, was left to the Macintosh's QuickDraw
QuickDraw
QuickDraw is the 2D graphics library and associated Application Programming Interface which is a core part of the classic Apple Macintosh operating system. It was initially written by Bill Atkinson and Andy Hertzfeld. QuickDraw still exists as part of the libraries of Mac OS X, but has been...
libraries and would not be superseded by a PostScript-like approach until Adobe released Adobe Type Manager.
In 1989, Adobe introduced what was to become its flagship
Flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, reflecting the custom of its commander, characteristically a flag officer, flying a distinguishing flag...
product, a graphics editing program for the Macintosh called Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is a graphics editing program developed and published by Adobe Systems Incorporated.Adobe's 2003 "Creative Suite" rebranding led to Adobe Photoshop 8's renaming to Adobe Photoshop CS. Thus, Adobe Photoshop CS5 is the 12th major release of Adobe Photoshop...
. Stable and full-featured, Photoshop 1.0 was ably marketed by Adobe and soon dominated the market.
In 1993, Adobe introduced PDF, the Portable Document Format, and its Adobe Acrobat and Reader
Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Acrobat is a family of application software developed by Adobe Systems to view, create, manipulate, print and manage files in Portable Document Format . All members of the family, except Adobe Reader , are commercial software, while the latter is available as freeware and can be downloaded...
software. PDF is now an International Standard: ISO 32000-1:2008. The technology is adopted worldwide as a common medium for electronic documents.
Arguably, one of Adobe's few missteps on the Macintosh platform was their failure to develop their own desktop publishing
Desktop publishing
Desktop publishing is the creation of documents using page layout software on a personal computer.The term has been used for publishing at all levels, from small-circulation documents such as local newsletters to books, magazines and newspapers...
(DTP) program. Instead, Aldus
Aldus
Aldus Corporation, named after the 15th-century Venetian printer Aldus Manutius, was the inventor of the groundbreaking PageMaker software, a program that is generally credited with creating the desktop publishing field. The company was founded by Jeremy Jaech, Mark Sundstrom, Mike Templeman,...
with PageMaker
Adobe PageMaker
PageMaker was one of the first desktop publishing programs, introduced in 1985 by Aldus Corporation, initially for the then-new Apple Macintosh and in 1987 for PCs running Windows 1.0....
in 1985 and Quark
Quark, Inc.
Quark, Inc. is a privately owned software company best known for QuarkXPress. It is called Quark because the company's goal is to "create software that would be the platform for publishing", just as quarks are the basis for all matter.As of August 2011, Quark's offerings include:* QuarkXPress -...
with QuarkXPress
QuarkXPress
QuarkXPress is a computer application for creating and editing complex page layouts in a WYSIWYG environment. It runs on Mac OS X and Windows. It was first released by Quark, Inc...
in 1987 gained early leads in the DTP market. Adobe was also slow to address the emerging Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
DTP market. However, Adobe made great strides in that market with the release of InDesign
Adobe InDesign
Adobe InDesign is a software application produced by Adobe Systems. It can be used to create works such as posters, flyers, brochures, magazines, newspapers and books. In conjunction with Adobe Digital Publishing Suite InDesign can publish content suitable for tablet devices...
and its bundled Creative Suite
Adobe Creative Suite
Adobe Creative Suite is a collection of graphic design, video editing, and web development applications made by Adobe Systems. The collection consists of Adobe's applications , that are based on various technologies...
offering. In a failure to predict the direction of computing, Adobe released a complete version of Illustrator for Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman and inventor widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc...
' ill-fated NeXT
NeXT
Next, Inc. was an American computer company headquartered in Redwood City, California, that developed and manufactured a series of computer workstations intended for the higher education and business markets...
system, but a poorly-produced version for Windows.
Despite these missteps, licensing fees from the PostScript interpreter allowed Adobe to outlast or acquire many of its rivals in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In December 1991, Adobe released Adobe Premiere, which Adobe rebranded to Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Premiere Pro is a timeline-based video editing software application. It is part of the Adobe Creative Suite, a suite of graphic design, video editing, and web development applications developed by Adobe Systems, though it can also be purchased separately. When purchased separately, it comes...
in 2003. In 1994, Adobe acquired Aldus and added Adobe PageMaker
Adobe PageMaker
PageMaker was one of the first desktop publishing programs, introduced in 1985 by Aldus Corporation, initially for the then-new Apple Macintosh and in 1987 for PCs running Windows 1.0....
and Adobe After Effects
Adobe After Effects
Adobe After Effects is a digital motion graphics and compositing software published by Adobe Systems, used in the post-production process of filmmaking and television production. Its main uses are the origination of 2D and 2.5D animation, visual effects compositing and finishing...
to its production line later in the year; it also controls the TIFF file format. In 1995, Adobe added Adobe FrameMaker
Adobe FrameMaker
Adobe FrameMaker is a document processor for the production and manipulation of large structured documents. It is produced by Adobe Systems. Although FrameMaker has evolved slowly in recent years, it maintains a strong following among professional technical writers.- Overview :FrameMaker has more...
, the long-document DTP application, to its production line after Adobe acquired Frame Technology Corp. In 1999, Adobe introduced Adobe InCopy
Adobe InCopy
Adobe InCopy is a professional word processing software made by Adobe Systems. It is integrated to Adobe InDesign however it is sold separately and is not included in any Creative Suite edition; the current version is Adobe InCopy CS5.5...
as a direct competitor to QuarkCopyDesk.
Company events
In 1992, Adobe acquired OCR Systems, Inc.OCR Systems, Inc.
OCR Systems Inc. was a software company based in the Greater Philadelphia area. Founded in 1969 by Dr. Theodor H. Levine, it was a pioneer in optical character recognition. Best known for its ReadRight software, the company was acquired by Adobe Systems Incorporated in 1992....
; in 1994, the company acquired Aldus Corporation
Aldus
Aldus Corporation, named after the 15th-century Venetian printer Aldus Manutius, was the inventor of the groundbreaking PageMaker software, a program that is generally credited with creating the desktop publishing field. The company was founded by Jeremy Jaech, Mark Sundstrom, Mike Templeman,...
. On May 30, 1997, Adobe reincorporated in Delaware by merging with and into Adobe Systems (Delaware), which was incorporated on May 9, 1997. Adobe Systems Incorporated (Delaware) was the surviving corporation and changed its name to Adobe Systems Incorporated concurrently with the merger.
The company acquired GoLive Systems, Inc. and released Adobe GoLive
Adobe GoLive
Adobe GoLive was a WYSIWYG HTML editor and web site management application from Adobe Systems. It replaced Adobe PageMill as Adobe's primary HTML editor and was itself discontinued in favour of Dreamweaver...
in 1999 and began shipping Adobe InDesign
Adobe InDesign
Adobe InDesign is a software application produced by Adobe Systems. It can be used to create works such as posters, flyers, brochures, magazines, newspapers and books. In conjunction with Adobe Digital Publishing Suite InDesign can publish content suitable for tablet devices...
as a direct competitor to QuarkXPress
QuarkXPress
QuarkXPress is a computer application for creating and editing complex page layouts in a WYSIWYG environment. It runs on Mac OS X and Windows. It was first released by Quark, Inc...
and as an eventual replacement for PageMaker. In May 2003, Adobe acquired Syntrillium Software, adding Adobe Audition
Adobe Audition
Adobe Audition is a digital audio workstation from Adobe Systems featuring both a multitrack, non-destructive mix/edit environment and a destructive-approach waveform editing view.-Origins:...
to its product line. In December 2004, French company OKYZ S.A., makers of 3D collaboration software, was acquired. This acquisition added 3D technology and expertise to the Adobe Intelligent Document Platform.
On December 12, 2005 Adobe acquired its main rival Macromedia
Macromedia
Macromedia was an American graphics and web development software company headquartered in San Francisco, California that produced such products as Flash and Dreamweaver. Its rival, Adobe Systems, acquired Macromedia on December 3, 2005 and controls the line of Macromedia...
in a stock swap
Stock swap
A stock swap, also known as a share swap, is a business takeover or acquisition in which the acquiring company uses its own stock to pay for the acquired company. Each shareholder of the newly acquired company receives a certain number of shares of the acquiring company's stock for each share of...
valued at about $3.4 billion, adding Adobe ColdFusion, Adobe Contribute
Adobe Contribute
Adobe Contribute is a web publishing and website management tool that integrates authoring, reviewing, and publishing in a WYSIWYG HTML editor...
, Adobe Captivate
Adobe Captivate
Adobe Captivate is an electronic learning tool for Microsoft Windows, and from v.5 Mac OS X which can be used to author software demonstrations, software simulations, branched scenarios, and randomized quizzes in .swf format. It can also convert Adobe Captivate generated .swf to .avi which can be...
, Adobe Acrobat Connect (formerly Macromedia Breeze), Adobe Director
Adobe Director
Adobe Director is a multimedia application authoring platform created by Macromedia—now part of Adobe Systems. It allows users to build applications built on a movie metaphor, with the user as the "director" of the movie...
, Adobe Dreamweaver, Adobe Fireworks, Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
, FlashPaper, Adobe Flex
Adobe Flex
Adobe Flex is a software development kit released by Adobe Systems for the development and deployment of cross-platform rich Internet applications based on the Adobe Flash platform...
, Macromedia FreeHand
Macromedia FreeHand
Macromedia FreeHand is a computer application for creating two-dimensional vector graphics that are oriented primarily to professional illustration, desktop publishing and content creation for the Web. FreeHand is similar in scope, intended market, and functionality to Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw...
, Macromedia HomeSite
Macromedia HomeSite
HomeSite was an HTML editor owned by Adobe Systems . Unlike WYSIWYG HTML editors such as Microsoft FrontPage and Adobe Dreamweaver, HomeSite was designed for direct editing, or "hand coding," of HTML and other website languages...
, Macromedia JRun
Macromedia JRun
JRun is a J2EE application server, originally developed in 1997 as a Java Servlet engine by Live Software and subsequently purchased by Allaire, who brought out the first J2EE compliant version. It was acquired by Macromedia prior to its 2001 takeover of Allaire, and subsequently by Adobe Systems...
, Adobe Presenter, and Macromedia Authorware
Macromedia Authorware
Macromedia Authorware was an interpreted, flowchart based, graphical programming language. Authorware is used for creating interactive programs that can integrate a range of multimedia content, particularly e-learning applications...
to Adobe's production line.
In January 2007, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom was released to assist photographers in managing digital images and post production work. The product was intended as a competitor to Apple's Aperture
Aperture (photography software)
Aperture is a photo editing and management software program that was developed by Apple for the Mac OS X operating system, first released in 2005 for $499 , dropped to $199, and now released on their App Store for $79...
in the RAW image editing market. Adobe acquired Scene7
Scene7
Scene7 is an American on-demand rich media software company that provides document hosting and interactive publishing services such as online catalogs, targeted email, video, and image management. Several companies, mostly retailers, use the company's services to showcase products on their websites...
in May of the same year. The company makes an image processing and display platform used in many retail sites on the web. In July, Adobe released Soundbooth
Adobe Soundbooth
Adobe Soundbooth was a digital audio editor by Adobe Systems Incorporated for Mac OS X, Windows Vista and 7. Adobe has described it as being "in the spirit of SoundEdit 16 and Cool Edit 2000". Adobe also has a more powerful program called Adobe Audition, which replaced Soundbooth as of Adobe...
. This product was not intended to replace the existing Adobe Audition
Adobe Audition
Adobe Audition is a digital audio workstation from Adobe Systems featuring both a multitrack, non-destructive mix/edit environment and a destructive-approach waveform editing view.-Origins:...
but merely to provide an environment for professionals not specializing in audio. On August 3, 2007, the company announced their plans to discontinue development of Authorware, the “visual authoring tool for creating rich-media e-learning applications for delivery on corporate networks, CD/DVD, and the Web.” Authorware was one of the development tools acquired in the Macromedia/Adobe merger. It was replaced by Adobe Captivate. In October, the company acquired Virtual Ubiquity, along with its online word processor, Buzzword. On November 12, 2007, CEO, Bruce Chizen
Bruce Chizen
Bruce R. Chizen was the chief executive officer of Adobe Systems, based in San Jose, California. Chizen lives in Los Altos, California with his wife and children.- Career :...
resigned. Effective December 1, he was replaced by Shantanu Narayen
Shantanu Narayen
Shantanu Narayen is the current CEO of Adobe Systems. Prior to this post, he held the role as the President and Chief Operating Officer since 2005.-Early life:...
, Adobe's current president and Chief Operating Officer. Bruce Chizen served out his term on Adobe's Board of Directors, and then continued in a strategic advisory role until the end of Adobe's 2008 fiscal year.
Adobe released Adobe Media Player in April 2008. On April 27, Adobe discontinued development and sales of its older HTML/web development software, GoLive
Adobe GoLive
Adobe GoLive was a WYSIWYG HTML editor and web site management application from Adobe Systems. It replaced Adobe PageMill as Adobe's primary HTML editor and was itself discontinued in favour of Dreamweaver...
in favor of Dreamweaver. Adobe offered a discount on Dreamweaver for GoLive users and supports those who still use GoLive with online tutorials and migration assistance. On June 1, Adobe launched Acrobat.com
Acrobat.com
Acrobat.com is a suite of hosted PDF conversion and document exchange services from Adobe Systems. It includes the original service – Acrobat.com – as well as Adobe CreatePDF, Adobe ExportPDF, Adobe EchoSign, Adobe FormsCentral, and Adobe SendNow. Users access each of the services through their web...
, a series of web application
Web application
A web application is an application that is accessed over a network such as the Internet or an intranet. The term may also mean a computer software application that is coded in a browser-supported language and reliant on a common web browser to render the application executable.Web applications are...
s geared for collaborative work. Creative Suite 4, which includes Design, Web, Production Premium and Master Collection came out in October 2008 in six configurations at prices from about USD $1,700 to $2,500 or by individual application. The Windows version of Photoshop includes 64-bit processing. On December 3, 2008, Adobe laid off 600 of its employees (8% of the worldwide staff) citing the weak economic environment
Late 2000s recession
The late-2000s recession, sometimes referred to as the Great Recession or Lesser Depression or Long Recession, is a severe ongoing global economic problem that began in December 2007 and took a particularly sharp downward turn in September 2008. The Great Recession has affected the entire world...
.
Adobe announced two acquisitions in 2009: on August 29, they purchased Business Catalyst
Business Catalyst
Business Catalyst is a hosted all-in-one solution for building and managing business websites. The company uses the term "Online Businesses" to represent a new approach to building and running websites. An online business differs from an ordinary website in that it has greater awareness of its...
., and on September 15, Adobe bought Omniture
Omniture
Omniture is an online marketing and web analytics business unit owned by Adobe Systems. The Omniture Business Unit is based in Orem, Utah, with offices worldwide. It serves customers in 75 countries worldwide.- History :...
. On November 10, the company laid off 680 employees. In 2010, Adobe announced it was investigating a "coordinated attack
Operation Aurora
Operation Aurora was a cyber attack which began in mid-2009 and continued through December 2009. The attack was first publicly disclosed by Google on January 12, 2010, in a blog post. In the blog post, Google said the attack originated in China...
" against corporate network systems in China, managed by the company. This same attack was also brought against Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
and over 20 other companies. Adobe announced the new Creative Suite series (CS5) launched globally Monday, April 12, 2010. New software such as Flash Catalyst and Business Catalyst
Business Catalyst
Business Catalyst is a hosted all-in-one solution for building and managing business websites. The company uses the term "Online Businesses" to represent a new approach to building and running websites. An online business differs from an ordinary website in that it has greater awareness of its...
were also announced.
Adobe's 2010 was marked by continuing back-and-forth arguments with Apple over the latter's non-support for Adobe Flash on its iPhone, iPad and other products. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has claimed that Flash is not reliable or secure enough, while Adobe executives have argued that Apple wish to maintain control over the iOS platform.
In January 2011, Adobe acquired Demdex, Inc with the intent of adding Demdex's audience-optimization software to its online marketing suite.
At PhotoShop World 2011, Adobe unveiled a new mobile photo service. Carousel is a new application for iPhone, iPad and Mac that uses Photoshop Lightroom technology for users to adjust and fine-tune images on all platforms. Carousel will also allow users to automatically sync, share and browse photos.
On November 9, 2011 Adobe confirmed that they had ceased development of Flash for mobile devices. Instead they will be focusing on HTML 5, due to it having wider support and greater capabilities than Flash.
Corporate leadership
| Executive Board | |
| Charles Geschke Charles Geschke Charles Geschke, is best known as the 1982 co-founder with John Warnock of Adobe Systems Inc., the graphics and publishing software company.-Education:... |
Co-Chairman |
| John Warnock John Warnock John Edward Warnock is an American computer scientist best known as the co-founder with Charles Geschke of Adobe Systems Inc., the graphics and publishing software company. Dr. Warnock was President of Adobe for his first two years and Chairman and CEO for his remaining sixteen years at the company... |
Co-Chairman |
| Shantanu Narayen Shantanu Narayen Shantanu Narayen is the current CEO of Adobe Systems. Prior to this post, he held the role as the President and Chief Operating Officer since 2005.-Early life:... |
President & Chief executive officer |
| Karen Cottle | Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary |
| Mark Garrett | Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer |
| Donna Morris | Senior Vice President, Human Resources |
| Kevin Lynch | Senior Vice President: Experience & Technology Group, Chief Technology Officer |
Products
Desktop software- Adobe PhotoshopAdobe PhotoshopAdobe Photoshop is a graphics editing program developed and published by Adobe Systems Incorporated.Adobe's 2003 "Creative Suite" rebranding led to Adobe Photoshop 8's renaming to Adobe Photoshop CS. Thus, Adobe Photoshop CS5 is the 12th major release of Adobe Photoshop...
, Adobe InDesignAdobe InDesignAdobe InDesign is a software application produced by Adobe Systems. It can be used to create works such as posters, flyers, brochures, magazines, newspapers and books. In conjunction with Adobe Digital Publishing Suite InDesign can publish content suitable for tablet devices...
, Adobe IllustratorAdobe IllustratorAdobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor developed and marketed by Adobe Systems. Illustrator is similar in scope, intended market, and functionality to its competitors, CorelDraw, Xara Designer Pro and Macromedia FreeHand....
, Adobe Fireworks, Adobe AcrobatAdobe AcrobatAdobe Acrobat is a family of application software developed by Adobe Systems to view, create, manipulate, print and manage files in Portable Document Format . All members of the family, except Adobe Reader , are commercial software, while the latter is available as freeware and can be downloaded...
and Adobe AuditionAdobe AuditionAdobe Audition is a digital audio workstation from Adobe Systems featuring both a multitrack, non-destructive mix/edit environment and a destructive-approach waveform editing view.-Origins:...
Server software
- Adobe ColdFusion, Adobe Content ServerAdobe Content ServerAdobe Content Server is DRM software used to add digital rights management to eBooks and developed by Adobe Systems. It is designed to "protect" and distribute Adobe eBooks in PDF or EPUB format through Adobe Digital Editions...
and Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise SuiteAdobe LiveCycleAdobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite is a SOA Java EE-based server software product from Adobe Systems Incorporated used to build applications that automate a broad range of business processes for enterprises and government agencies...
Formats
- Portable Document FormatPortable Document FormatPortable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
(PDF), PDF's predecessor PostScriptPostScriptPostScript is a dynamically typed concatenative programming language created by John Warnock and Charles Geschke in 1982. It is best known for its use as a page description language in the electronic and desktop publishing areas. Adobe PostScript 3 is also the worldwide printing and imaging...
, ActionScriptActionScriptActionScript is an object-oriented language originally developed by Macromedia Inc. . It is a dialect of ECMAScript , and is used primarily for the development of websites and software targeting the Adobe Flash Player platform, used on Web pages in the form of...
, Shockwave Flash (SWFSWFSWF is an Adobe Flash file format used for multimedia, vector graphics and ActionScript. Originating with FutureWave Software, then transferred to Macromedia, and then coming under the control of Adobe, SWF files can contain animations or applets of varying degrees of interactivity and function.,...
) and Flash Video (FLV)
Web-hosted services
- Adobe KulerAdobe KulerAdobe Kuler is an internet application from Adobe Systems that lets individuals try out, create and save various colour schemes, each of which consists of a set of five colours. It is available in browser-hosted variants running on Adobe Flash, and in desktop versions using the Adobe AIR runtime...
, Photoshop Express, and Acrobat.comAcrobat.comAcrobat.com is a suite of hosted PDF conversion and document exchange services from Adobe Systems. It includes the original service – Acrobat.com – as well as Adobe CreatePDF, Adobe ExportPDF, Adobe EchoSign, Adobe FormsCentral, and Adobe SendNow. Users access each of the services through their web...
Web design programs
- Adobe Dreamweaver, Adobe ContributeAdobe ContributeAdobe Contribute is a web publishing and website management tool that integrates authoring, reviewing, and publishing in a WYSIWYG HTML editor...
, Adobe Flash Builder, Adobe Flash Catalyst and Adobe FlashAdobe FlashAdobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
Video editing and visual effects
- Adobe Premiere ProAdobe Premiere ProAdobe Premiere Pro is a timeline-based video editing software application. It is part of the Adobe Creative Suite, a suite of graphic design, video editing, and web development applications developed by Adobe Systems, though it can also be purchased separately. When purchased separately, it comes...
and Adobe After EffectsAdobe After EffectsAdobe After Effects is a digital motion graphics and compositing software published by Adobe Systems, used in the post-production process of filmmaking and television production. Its main uses are the origination of 2D and 2.5D animation, visual effects compositing and finishing...
eLearning software
- Adobe CaptivateAdobe CaptivateAdobe Captivate is an electronic learning tool for Microsoft Windows, and from v.5 Mac OS X which can be used to author software demonstrations, software simulations, branched scenarios, and randomized quizzes in .swf format. It can also convert Adobe Captivate generated .swf to .avi which can be...
Organizational software
- Adobe Extension Manager and Adobe BridgeAdobe BridgeAdobe Bridge is an organizational software application created and released by Adobe Systems as a part of the Adobe Creative Suite, beginning with CS2. Its primary purpose is to link the parts of the Creative Suite together using an interface similar to the file browser found in previous versions...
Financial information
Adobe Systems entered NASDAQNASDAQ
The NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...
in 1986. Adobe's 2006 revenues were US$2.575 billion.
As of February 2007, Adobe's market capitalization
Market capitalization
Market capitalization is a measurement of the value of the ownership interest that shareholders hold in a business enterprise. It is equal to the share price times the number of shares outstanding of a publicly traded company...
was roughly US$23 billion; as of August 2007, its shares were trading on the NASDAQ for around $40, with a P/E ratio of about 49 and EPS of about $0.82.
As of March 2008, Adobe's market capitalization was roughly $18 billion; its shares were trading on the NASDAQ for around $33, with a P/E ratio of about 27 and EPS of about $1.21.
As of April 2011, Adobe's market capitalization was roughly $17 billion; its shares were trading on the NASDAQ for around $33, with a P/E ratio of about 19.73 and EPS of about $1.70.
2000s
| Fiscal year | Revenue |
|---|---|
| 2010 | $3.800 billion |
| 2009 | $2.946 billion |
| 2008 | $3.580 billion |
| 2007 | $3.158 billion |
| 2006 | $2.575 billion |
| 2005 | $1.966 billion |
| 2004 | $1.667 billion |
| 2003 | $1.295 billion |
| 2002 | $1.165 billion |
| 2001 | $1.230 billion |
| 2000 | $1.266 billion |
1990s
| Fiscal year | Revenue |
|---|---|
| 1999 | $1.015 billion |
| 1998 | $895 million |
| 1997 | $912 million |
| 1996 | $787 million |
| 1995 | $762 million |
| 1994 | $675 million |
Adobe's fiscal years run from December to November. For example, the 2007 fiscal year ended on November 30, 2007.
Awards
Since 1995, FortuneFortune (magazine)
Fortune is a global business magazine published by Time Inc. Founded by Henry Luce in 1930, the publishing business, consisting of Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated, grew to become Time Warner. In turn, AOL grew as it acquired Time Warner in 2000 when Time Warner was the world's largest...
has ranked Adobe as an outstanding place to work. Adobe was rated the fifth-best U.S. company to work for in 2003, sixth in 2004, 31st in 2007, 40th in 2008, and eleventh in 2009.
In May 2008, Adobe Systems India was ranked 19th of great places to work in India. In October 2008, Adobe Systems Canada Inc. was named one of "Canada's Top 100 Employers
Canada's Top 100 Employers
Canada's Top 100 Employers is an annual competition that recognizes the best places in Canada to work. First held in 1999, the project aims to single out the employers that lead their industries in offering exceptional working conditions and progressive human resources policies. Winners are...
" by Mediacorp Canada Inc., and was featured in Maclean's
Maclean's
Maclean's is a Canadian weekly news magazine, reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events.-History:Founded in 1905 by Toronto journalist/entrepreneur Lt.-Col. John Bayne Maclean, a 43-year-old trade magazine publisher who purchased an advertising agency's in-house...
newsmagazine.
Criticism
Adobe has been criticized for its pricing practices, with retail prices being as much as twice as high in non-US countries as in the US. In June 2009, Adobe increased its prices in the UK by 10%. Adobe's Flash Player has also been criticized for, among other things (see criticism of Flash Player) suffering from performance, memory usage and security problems.See also
- Adobe Engagement PlatformAdobe Engagement PlatformAt Adobe MAX 2008, Adobe announced the new Flash Platform concept, and this has replaced the branding formerly known as Adobe Engagement Platform.In 2005, Adobe Systems bought Macromedia. The Adobe Engagement Platform was the announced name of the product line resulting from the merger of...
- Adobe Solutions NetworkAdobe Solutions NetworkThe Adobe Solutions Network or Adobe Partner Connection is the official brand name for worldwide partner programs of Adobe Systems, Inc. ...
- Adobe MAXAdobe MAXThe Adobe MAX is an annual event held by Adobe Systems in North America, Europe and Japan. The purpose of the event is to promote the latest Adobe releases to those in the computer design and development industries....
- US v. ElcomSoft Sklyarov
- List of Adobe software