On July 28, Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE) announced the acquisition of Switzerland-based content management provider Day Software for approximately US$240 million. The deal is expected to close during Adobe's FY Q4.

The purchase showed Adobe's interest in growing its WCM portfolio, and that its appetite for the content-management market went beyond its September 2009 purchase of Omniture for $1.8 billion. 

At the time of the acquisition, the move was surprising as Day was a company that used many open source components, while Adobe is a mostly proprietary company. It's possible the purchase provides a way for Adobe to build it's back-end business--allowing Adobe to move more deeply and broadly into the enterprise.

Alan Pelz-Sharpe of the Real Story Group, told FierceContentManagement Editor Ron Miller that the acquisition is part of a greater trend: The commoditization of content management. "For WCM as a whole, it's just more commoditization and part of an ongoing trend, but I'm not sure it will have much impact at all on open source CM," said Pelz-Sharpe. 

At the time of the acquisition, many wondered if the Day purchase would negatively impact Adobe's existing partnership with Alfresco. "Most likely in the long term the core repository services OEM'd by Alfresco will be replaced by Day services," predicted Pelz-Sharp.

However, John Newton, CTO of Alfresco tried to clear the air, saying, "the relationship with Adobe stands as is and continues with the contract through its period into 2012."

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Adobe purchases Day Software for $240 million