San Jose, California — Last month, desktop-publishing and graphic software maker Adobe Systems Inc. agreed to acquire web analytics specialist Omniture, for approximately $US1.8 billion in cash. Today the company declared the successful completion of the tender offer for all outstanding shares of common stock of Omniture, Inc. at a price of $21.50 per share, net to the seller in cash, without interest. The offer was completed by its direct wholly owned subsidiary, Snowbird Acquisition Corp. and expired yesterday at 12:00 midnight, New York City, New York time.
In early October, Adobe announced that it has been allowed early termination of the the waiting period according to the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act, enabling the acquisition to progress at faster pace than we usually see.
Following the finalization of the acquisition, which is expected today, Omniture will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Adobe. The merger agreement called for all remaining publicly held shares of Omniture, other than those held by holders who properly exercise their appraisal rights under applicable Delaware law, to be acquired for $21.50 per share, net to the holder in cash, without interest.
Amongst the Omniture’s core product, which include the Omniture Online Marketing Suite is a leading solution for optimizing ad spend and conversion. It contains a comprehensive portfolio of applications for visitor acquisition, conversion, online analytics and multi-channel analytics built on an open business analytics platform.
Omniture will provide opportunities to develop new products in combination with Adobe’s content creation tools and ubiquitous clients, according to Adobe’s statement.
While the purchase was announced, Adobe president and CEO Shantanu Narayen said “Adobe customers are looking to us for solutions to deliver engaging experiences and more effectively monetize their content and applications online.”
“Adobe’s mission is to revolutionize how the world engages with ideas and information,” Adobe stated. “By uniting our content creation tools and ubiquitous clients with Omniture’s Web analytics, measurement and optimization technologies, Adobe will be well positioned to deliver solutions that can transform the future of engaging experiences and e-commerce across all digital content, platforms and devices.”
“This is a game changer for both Adobe and our customers. We will enable advertisers, media companies and e-tailers to realize the full value of their digital assets,” added Narayen.
Adobe is facing a downswing in its core business, according to Forrester Research, and the purchase of Omniture opens it up to a segment expected to grow at 17 percent annually.
The acquisition is likely to increase existing privacy concerns about Flash cookies, which are less visible and much harder to selectively remove than conventional browser cookies. CNN Money notes that Adobe will be competing with Google Analytics from the heavyweight duo of Coremetrics and Google, however, Omniture has five times the customer base of Coremetrics, its closest rival, spelling Omniture’s clear dominance of this field.