Glossary Term
Adobe Inc.
History and Milestones
- Adobe Inc. was founded in December 1982 by John Warnock and Charles Geschke.
- The company started in John Warnock's garage.
- The name 'Adobe' comes from Adobe Creek in Los Altos, California.
- Adobe's corporate logo features a stylized A and was designed by graphic designer Marva Warnock.
- Steve Jobs attempted to buy the company for $5 million in 1982, but the founders refused.
- Adobe focused on developing specialized printing software in the 1980s.
- They created the Adobe PostScript page description language, which became the industry-standard printer language by 1987.
- Adobe released digital fonts in a proprietary format called Type 1.
- Illustrator, a vector-based drawing program, was introduced in the mid-1980s.
- In 1993, Adobe introduced PDF (Portable Document Format) and Adobe Acrobat and Reader software.
- In 1994, Adobe acquired Aldus Corporation, adding PageMaker and After Effects to its product line.
- Adobe acquired FrameMaker, a long-document DTP application, in 1995.
- In 1996, Adobe acquired Ares Software Corp.
- Adobe acquired Macromedia in 2005, adding various software products to its lineup.
- In 2003, Adobe purchased Cool Edit Pro and renamed it Adobe Audition.
- Adobe released Adobe Media Player in 2008.
- On April 27, 2008, Adobe discontinued the development and sales of GoLive in favor of Dreamweaver.
- Adobe launched Acrobat.com, a series of web applications, on June 1, 2008.
Present and Products
- Adobe is headquartered in San Jose, California.
- The company specializes in software for content creation and publication.
- Adobe's flagship products include Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat Reader.
- They offer a subscription software as a service (SaaS) called Adobe Creative Cloud.
- Adobe is considered one of the top global leaders in Customer Experience Management (CXM).
Recent Developments
- Adobe had ongoing arguments with Apple over the lack of support for Adobe Flash on Apple products.
- Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs criticized Flash for its reliability and security.
- Adobe acquired Day Software and integrated their line of products.
- Adobe acquired DemDex, Inc. to add audience-optimization software to its online marketing suite.
- Adobe unveiled a new mobile photo service called Carousel, which later became Adobe Revel.
- The annual Adobe Summit was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Adobe banned political ads features on its digital advert sales platform as the US presidential elections approached in 2020.
- Adobe acquired Workfront, a provider of marketing collaboration software, for $1.5 billion.
- Adobe announced the acquisition of Frame.io, a cloud-based video collaboration platform, for $1.275 billion.
- Adobe added payment services to its e-commerce platform in 2021.
Finances and Recognition
- Adobe's revenue increased from $1.966 billion in 2005 to $12.806 billion in 2020.
- The company experienced growth rates ranging from -21.52% in 2009 to 22.47% in 2010.
- Net income varied from $268 million in 2014 to $2.951 billion in 2019.
- Adobe's stock price per share ranged from $28.63 in 2009 to $490.564 in 2019.
- The number of employees increased from 11,847 in 2013 to 22,634 in 2019.
- Fortune recognized Adobe as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For since 2000.
- Adobe was recognized as a Best Place to Work by Glassdoor.
- Fast Company included Adobe on its list of the Most Innovative Companies.
Criticisms and Controversies
- Pricing: Retail prices are up to twice as much in non-US countries compared to the US.
- Security: Hackers have exploited vulnerabilities in Adobe programs, such as Adobe Reader.
- Customer data breach: Sensitive data of millions of customers was stolen in a security breach.
- Anti-competitive practices: Adobe acquired a competing product, FreeHand, and stalled its development.
- Cancellation fees: Adobe faced criticism for its cancellation fees.
- Chief executive officers: John Warnock, Bruce Chizen, and Shantanu Narayen.
- Failed acquisition of Figma: Adobe's planned acquisition of Figma was abandoned due to regulatory push-back.
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