Adobe Acquires Demdex – Brings Audience Optimization to $109 Billion Global Online Ad Market

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced it has acquired privately held Demdex, a leading data management platform company. The global online advertising spend is a large and growing market and is projected to reach $109 billion in 2013* as online advertising becomes an increasingly strategic part of the marketing mix. Online audience optimization is a critical factor for advertisers and publishers to maximize their online ad investment. The addition of Demdex to the Adobe® Online Marketing Suite, powered by Omniture®, delivers an audience optimization solution that will enable advertisers and publishers to consistently deliver more relevant digital experiences to their customers.

“Online media is poised to capture a greater share of advertising revenue based on audience size, engagement and capabilities, but the complexity and isolation of metrics have impeded its past success”

The online ad market is undergoing fundamental changes as advertisers increasingly shift from buying content-driven placements to buying specific audiences. This helps advertisers more efficiently spend ad dollars and avoid advertising to audiences that don’t meet their criteria. Publishers are increasingly seeking to provide audience data to match advertisers’ requirements so they can deliver ad inventory at premium rates. This shift to buying and selling audience segments requires advertisers and publishers to gather, consolidate and more easily share anonymous audience data. This has created a highly fragmented and complex ad buying and selling process.

Audience optimization is the intelligent collection, compilation and management of anonymous audience data and is strategic to publishers and advertisers focused on increasing the efficiency of buying and selling online ads. Adobe enables publishers to leverage their data to create groups of anonymous audience segments that are aligned with the advertisers’ audience requirements. Adobe also enables advertisers and publishers to manage how their valuable audience data is collected, shared and used among their partner technologies, systems and processes.

“Our customers rank among the world’s largest advertisers and publishers and they have been asking us to help them optimize how they buy and sell online ads,” said Brad Rencher, vice president and general manager, Omniture Business Unit, Adobe. “With the addition of Demdex, the Adobe Online Marketing Suite will enable advertisers to be smarter with their advertising spend and publishers to leverage their audience data to generate more revenue. With audience optimization, Adobe is literally changing how online ads are bought and sold.”

“Adding our technology to the capabilities and vision of Adobe is a powerful combination for advertisers and publishers,” said Randy Nicolau, chief executive officer, Demdex. “We will continue to evolve our technology as part of the Adobe Online Marketing Suite to help customers stay ahead of the rapidly evolving online ad market.”

“As a leading technology media company, our audience data is incredibly valuable to our business and our advertising partners,” said Vivek Shah, chief executive officer, Ziff Davis. “With Demdex becoming part of the Adobe Online Marketing Suite, we expect Adobe solutions to help us find even more ways to create value for our advertising partners and customers.”

“Online media is poised to capture a greater share of advertising revenue based on audience size, engagement and capabilities, but the complexity and isolation of metrics have impeded its past success,” said Andrew Frank, research vice president, Gartner, Inc. “The incorporation of data and technology into marketing and advertising processes will fundamentally change the nature of the online media business.”

Adobe is committed to consumer privacy as a critical part of its products, services and the online experience in general. With the acquisition of Demdex, Adobe is partnering with Evidon (formerly Better Advertising) and becomes part of Evidon’s Open Data Partnership (ODP). Selected by the Digital Advertising Alliance to power its interest-based advertising self-regulatory program, Evidon gives businesses an easy, standard method to provide evidence of compliance with industry guidelines and provide consumers with more transparency into – and control over – the interest-based advertising they receive.

Forward-Looking Statements Disclosure

This press release includes forward-looking statements, within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, that are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, including risks and uncertainties related to Adobe's ability to successfully address the market for online ad spend. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including statements regarding: the ability of Adobe to address the market for online ad spend and the growth of this market and other anticipated benefits of the transaction to Adobe; any statements of expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. These risks, uncertainties and other factors, and the general risks associated with Adobe’s business, could cause actual results to differ materially from those referred to in the forward-looking statements. The reader is cautioned not to rely on these forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to Adobe and are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. For a discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties, individuals should refer to Adobe's SEC filings. Adobe does not assume any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements or other statements included in this press release.

About the Adobe Online Marketing Suite

The Adobe® Online Marketing Suite, powered by Omniture®, offers an integrated and open platform for online business optimization, a strategy for using customer insight to drive innovation throughout the business and enhance marketing efficiency. The Suite consists of integrated applications to collect and unleash the power of customer insight to optimize customer acquisition, conversion and retention efforts as well as the creation and distribution of content. For example, using the Suite, marketers can identify the most effective marketing strategies and ad placements as well as create relevant, personalized and consistent customer experiences across digital marketing channels, such as onsite, display, e-mail, social, video and mobile. The Suite enables marketers to make quick adjustments, automate certain customer interactions and better maximize marketing ROI, which, ultimately, can positively impact the bottom line.

About Adobe Systems Incorporated

Adobe is changing the world through digital experiences. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.

*=Worldwide and U.S. Internet Advertising 2010-2014 Forecast and Analysis, IDC, Doc. #223346, May 2010.

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