Adobe will acquire Web analytics company Omniture for $1.8 billion, Adobe announced today. The merger will enable Adobe customers to better measure and monetize their content, said Adobe. The merger is expected to close in Q4 of this year.
Calling the Omniture acquisition a "game changer," Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen said the merger would allow "advertisers, media companies and e-tailers to realize the full value of their digital assets," according to the press release announcing the deal.
Omniture will become a new business unit within Adobe. Its chief executive, Josh James, will continue to lead the business as an Adobe SVP reporting to Narayen.
Founded in 1996 and based in Orem, UT, Omniture has about 1,200 employees. Its 2008 revenues totaled nearly $300 million.
The deal marks Adobe's largest acquisition since it bought Macromedia more than four years ago, a purchase that brought to Adobe Macromedia's widely used Flash technology, notes MarketWatch's John Letzing.
Adobe said it expects the purchase of Omniture to increase earnings in FY10.
