I know Adobe, but I don't know Omniture. This may be a dumb question, but what do they do?
And how does this mesh with Adobe's product line? Based upon initial comments, it looks like this may be the bigger question.
And how does this mesh with Adobe's product line? Based upon initial comments, it looks like this may be the bigger question.
They're trying to move that model into more traditional apps as well. Like tracking flash or AIR apps, they even do some analytics on some connected game consoles.
On the surface its a strange fit.
1) It's a buyers market because a lot of companies are looking for an out even at reduced valuation. 2) Employees are similarly not going anywhere in a climate like this so you can cut benefits for the time being because everyone is cutting benefits.
Look at the acquisitions as a long term investment whereas the reduced benefits are a band-aid.
and when the benefit reductions are in lieu of lay-offs, morale shouldn't be affected. people should be far-sighted enough to realize that everyone has to scale back.
if the companies don't readjust later then it goes without saying (or so I thought...) that they will lose employees.
the bottom line is that there is good sense in it.
"if the companies don't readjust later" .. i don't think people forget so soon. Also, the most effective people still have options in the downturn and are the ones you really can't afford to lose.
Mergers are really hard to get right, and you need buy-in from on high all the way down through the effected organization.
The bottom line is that you need to account for the ill will internally when you are considering making a decision like this. It may very well be the optimal choice for increasing short-term shareholder value, which is a publicly traded company's number 1 priority.
Now, if Adobe also announced that they'd pay doubletime for vacation for employees that took the unpaid time off and stuck it out, that'd be a Good Thing.
Here's why its strange to me. The web analytics space is very competitive and not very defensible. 1.8B for a company seems like a lot of money to spend when there are likely many smaller players that could be gotten for less.
Even as I write this though here's why I could see it making sense.
1. If Omniture is profitable. So you don't really lose too much if the investment pays itself back. (edit: they're not right now, but their stock is at about 1/2 where it was at the end of 07 so it could be considered a value?)
2. If Omniture is way ahead in the app tracking space. Web traffic isn't really new, but app tracking for Flash and other types of apps isn't as crowded a space, Omniture _might_ lead by leaps at this.
3. Turns on the Adobe as a service model. Adobe isn't a company with a lot month over month service revenues. Omniture fills this gap nicely.
I think this, combined with Omniture's appeal to large corporations who understand that web analytics done properly is more than just throwing a ga.js tag on your page, was one of the major motivating factors for Adobe.
Adobe is primarily about creating a consistent user experience across multiple channels. Large content production teams driven primarily by creative energies still struggle with using data-driven optimization, but this is going to be a competitive differentiator for teams that can do it well. This move helps Adobe adapt to this new game with arguably the strongest analytics data provider in the market.
It could even mean they start to make more money off what is produced with their technology and cheapen their developer and designer tools or even open it up more.
In terms of web analytics and putting return to web marketing, Omniture is probably the best at it.
* I'm not sure if this is related at all as it is a lot smaller. Adobe recently purchased Business Catalyst, a hosted CMS that differentiates itself by combining CMS, CRM & Analytics. It might be a general strategy of services that replace custom or patched together solutions with hosted solutions. Adobe has a general strategy of eventually bringing together products to work together.