Laying in bed this morning, eyes closed, not quite awake, I heard the NASDAQ reporter on CNBC cackle “Amohave announced their intentions to acquire Funiture.” I thought…WTF? Why is buying furniture making the news? I picked my head up turning it towards the tv and dialed in my focus on the screen….I heard wrong. It’s Adobe to acquire Omniture!
This is a beautifully strategic move for Adobe and another cock block on Microsoft. Why? MSFT was working on an analytics package last year to compete with Google Analytics and Omniture. The plug has been pulled and there’s no further development (link). I suspect the powers that be decided better to buy than build. MSFT’s pre-occupation with Yahoo & Bing has led them to miss the ball again. Steve…WAKE UP…It’s about tracking! So instead of buying the technological leader they bought a second place also ran and are pumping marketing dollars into a dying horse. Perhaps MSFT will attempt to buy WebTrends and revive it as well?
For Adobe this is a superb move. As the technological leader in the digital design space (i.e. tools that build digital experiences) they now have the preeminent platform for tracking the effectiveness of those experiences. In short, Adobe sells tools to those who bring in the audience and now the platform for measuring. The subscription revenue model of Omniture is also an interesting complement to Adobe who still derives much of their rev from licensed software sales.
Oh and I forgot to mention another hook into the media companies who buy Adobe design software. They’ll be able to sell more as more media dollars flow to digital as a result of analytic tools. Nice job Adobe.