3 ms·

Yah I understand where it fits in their value chain - I'm not saying that this is a bad acquisition for Adobe - its just a bit strange. Here's why its strange

Yah I understand where it fits in their value chain - I'm not saying that this is a bad acquisition for Adobe - its just a bit strange. 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.

rgrieselhuber 17y ago
Omniture has diversified quite a bit in the last few years and has a decent suite of solutions for a full range of business / content optimization problems. 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.
netsp 17y ago
Omniture has large customers. It might have something to do with that. * 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.
drawkbox 17y ago
Your third point is probably spot on. Adobe also has services like acrobat.com that they have been beefing up. Maybe their focus on developer and creative tools is expanding to marketing tools that have a more recurring revenue. 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.

rgrieselhuber 17y ago

Omniture has diversified quite a bit in the last few years and has a decent suite of solutions for a full range of business / content optimization problems. 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.

netsp 17y ago

Omniture has large customers. It might have something to do with that. * 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.

drawkbox 17y ago

Your third point is probably spot on. Adobe also has services like acrobat.com that they have been beefing up. Maybe their focus on developer and creative tools is expanding to marketing tools that have a more recurring revenue. 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.