Computer software company Adobe Systems has purchased e-commerce services provider Magento for a reported $1.68 billion, its biggest acquisition in nearly a decade.
Subjected to customary purchase price adjustments, the deal will help bolster Adobe’s existing Experience Cloud platform which currently offers centralised data analytics and advertising and marketing content to B2B and B2C customers – powered by its own machine learning framework Adobe Sensei.
Magento, which was acquired by private equity firm Permira from eBay Inc in 2015, is a digital e-commerce platform that brings order management and predictive intelligence into one singular commerce vendor to enable online shopping experiences across an array of industry sectors.
Magento’s technology will integrate with Adobe Experience Cloud to enable the transaction of both physical and digitals goods on the platform and deliver real-time experiences throughout the customer buying journey.
“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,” said Brad Rencher, executive vice president and general manager, digital experience, Adobe.
“Embedding commerce into the Adobe Experience Cloud with Magento enables Adobe to make every moment personal and every experience shoppable.”
Final piece in the puzzle
The purchase of Magento’s e-commerce capabilities look to be the final piece in the puzzle for Adobe, which already offers marketing content and data analytic products to its customers via the Experience Cloud.
The acquisition is also a step up in competition as Adobe looks to compete for market share in the cloud software space and take on similar cloud-based CRM platforms, including Salesforce which offers its own marketing, sales and e-commerce services.
“Adobe and Magento share a vision for the future of digital experiences that brings together Adobe’s strength in content and data with Magento’s open commerce innovation,” commented Magento’s CEO Mark Lavelle; “We’re excited to join Adobe and believe this will be a great opportunity for our customers, partners and developer community.”
The buyout is expected to close during the third quarter of Adobe’s fiscal year with Lavelle continuing his position as CEO to lead the Magento team as part of Adobe’s Digital Experience business.
Both companies will operate individually until the acquisition is fully complete after Q3.
