Adobe Systems Inc said on Tuesday it would buy the Web analytic software company Omniture Inc for about US$1.8 billion, giving the maker of content-creation software a way to let marketers measure the effectiveness of such content.
San Jose, California-based Adobe, which makes Flash, Acrobat and Photoshop software, said it would buy Omniture for US$21.50 per share in cash, a premium of 24 percent over Omniture’s closing share price on Tuesday. Omniture shares jumped nearly 26 percent in extended trading.
The announcement came as Adobe said it earned US$136 million, or US$0.26 per share, in the fiscal third quarter that ended in August, down 29 percent from the same time a year earlier.
Excluding one-time items, Adobe earned US$0.35 per share, a penny above what analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting.
Revenue fell 21 percent to US$697.5 million, inching past analyst expectations of US$686.2 million.
The recession has slowed demand for Creative Suite 4, the most recent version of the software package that brings in the bulk of the company’s revenue. But analysts say this will likely mean more pent-up demand for Creative Suite 5 when it launches.
For the fourth quarter, Adobe forecast earnings of US$0.23 to US$0.29 per share and adjusted earnings of US$0.33 to US$0.39 per share. The latter compares with analyst expectations of US$0.37 per share.
Adobe expects sales of US$690 million to US$740 million for the quarter, bracketing Wall Street’s estimates of US$719.2 million.
Omniture, based in Orem, Utah, offers a variety of Web traffic analysis and other products for companies to improve their marketing over the Internet. Its customers include Apple Inc, Time Warner Inc and Walt Disney Co.
Adobe expects the Omniture deal to close by November. The company will operate separately under Adobe as a new business unit, with Omniture CEO Josh James working as senior vice president reporting to Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen.
Trip Chowdhry, an analyst with Global Equities Research, said the planned acquisition would allow Adobe to create new streams of revenue even as its existing businesses decline.
Though he called the deal “very timely,” Chowdhry believes Adobe is overpaying for Omniture, especially because that company’s paid products have been losing market share to Google’s analytics service, which is free.
He said US$12 to US$13 per share — rather than US$21.50 — would have been a fair value for the company.
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