Adobe is going to acquire Magento for $1.68 Billion

Adobe has been searching for a missing piece in its marketing and eCommerce puzzle: an eCommerce platform. Fortunately for Adobe, they seem to have now found that piece, and it comes in the form of Magento. The company announced yesterday that it would be acquiring the popular eCommerce platform for $1.68 billion. That might sound like a weighty sum, but for Adobe - and Magento - it makes sense, especially when you consider just how competitive the marketing, eCommerce and analytics market place is at the moment.

Adobe is facing stiff competition from the likes of Salesforce and Oracle. Magento, while still a popular eCommerce platform, is also seeing competition from eCommerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce.

Adobe and Magento: working together to create a fully integrated marketing solution

The result of this move could be a fully integrated marketing platform. The eCommerce and content management aspects would come from Magento, while Adobe would add an extra analytics dimension. This could prove very attractive to both B2C and B2B organizations, who have been faced with choice but repeatedly have to compromise or pick and choose the components they need in their platform strategy.

A number of different outlets have remarked on the impressive rise of Magento's value. The company was bought by eBay in 2011 for just $180 million, then went private back in 2015 with help of VC investor Primera Funds. Although this amount was never officially disclosed, it is reported that Primera Funds stumped up $200 million. That's a pretty good return on investment.

Although Magento might loos a little dated and maybe even a little small scale for Adobe, who appear more interested in tackling the enterprise and huge B2B organizations than SMEs, with more than 300,000 developers working with Magento the move isn't as outrageous as some might claim. When you consider that some of the largest organizations on the planet - like Coca-Cola - use Magento, it's more than unfair to write the eCommerce platform off.

Here's what Brad Rechner, executive VP and General Manager of Digital Experience at Adobe, has to say:

“Adobe is the only company with leadership in content creation, marketing, advertising, analytics and now commerce – enabling real-time experiences across the entire customer journey... Embedding commerce into the Adobe Experience Cloud with Magento enables Adobe to make every moment personal and every experience shoppable.”

On the Magento side, CEO Mark Lavelle spoke of the combination of "Adobe’s strength in content and data with Magento’s open commerce innovation." Lavelle will remain the head of Magento, but will perform his role from inside Adobe's Digital Experience business.

Find out more here. [news.adobe.com]

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