When Adobe [1] (NASDAQ: ADBE) laid out $1.8 billion smackaroos last September to buy Omniture [2], there was a lot of speculation about just what it would do with its rather sizable investment. This week we found out: They are incorporating it into its Creative Suite 5 release to help marketers and designers integrate these analytical tools at every step of the design process.
When we reviewed analyst's reactions to the Omniture purchase last Fall, this is precisely what Jeremiah Owyang [3] predicted:
"Jeremiah Owyang, a partner Altimeter Group [4] (and until recently a Forrester [5] analyst) posted on Twitter that he thinks the deal makes sense. 'Give designers analytics so they can see what works--and adjust in near-real time.'"
Phil Kemelor, an analyst at CMS Watch [6] (now the Real Story) also predicted correctly that these tools would be incorporated into the Creative Suite line of products.
What's still not clear, however, is if this ability justified such a substantial investment. It certainly gives Adobe sweeping analytical abilities and that isn't trivial, but the price they paid for this capability was extremely high, and it will take a lot of CS5 sales to make up the investment. Of course, that matters little to content producers who can now take advantage of this functionality in popular design tools, but it will matter eventually to Adobe, a company that already rattled from Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) dismissal of its popular Flash platform [7] on the iPad and iPhone.
Adobe needs to find ways to stay relevant and the Omniture purchase certainly helps in this regard, but it was a high price to pay and it remains to be seen if it's enough.
For more information:
- see the Creative Suite 5 Launch Site [8]
Related Articles:
Apple maintains ban on Adobe with iPhone 4.0 [9]
Analysts react to Adobe's $1.8B Omniture purchase [10]
Time for Apple and Adobe to bury the hatchet on Flash [7]
Adobe BrowserLab adds screen capture, more browsers [11]
Adobe enhances Acrobat.com [12]
Links:
[1] http://www.adobe.com/
[2] http://www.omniture.com
[3] http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/
[4] http://www.altimetergroup.com/
[5] http://forrester.com
[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CMS_Watch
[7] http://www.fiercecontentmanagement.com/story/time-apple-and-adobe-bury-hatchet-flash/2010-04-13
[8] http://cs5launch.adobe.com/?promoid=FDXTI
[9] http://www.fiercemobileit.com/story/apple-maintains-ban-adobe-iphone-4-0/2010-04-13
[10] http://www.fiercecontentmanagement.com/story/breaking-news-adobe-buys-ominture/2009-09-16
[11] http://www.fiercecontentmanagement.com/story/adobe-browserlab-adds-screen-capture-more-browsers/2010-01-20
[12] http://www.fiercecontentmanagement.com/story/adobe-enhances-acrobat-com/2009-11-25