Adobe Inc. facts for kids
 |
|
|
|
|
Formerly
|
Adobe Systems Incorporated (1982–2018) |
|---|---|
| Public | |
| Traded as |
|
| Industry | Software |
| Founded | December 1982 Mountain View, California, U.S. |
| Founders |
|
| Headquarters | Adobe World Headquarters,
,
U.S.
|
|
Area served
|
Worldwide |
|
Key people
|
|
| Products |
|
| Services | SaaS |
| Revenue |  US$19.41 billion (2023) |
|
Operating income
|
US$6.650 billion (2023) |
| US$5.428 billion (2023) |
|
| Total assets | US$29.78 billion (2023) |
| Total equity | US$16.52 billion (2023) |
|
Number of employees
|
29,945 (2023) |
| Footnotes / references Financials as of December 1, 2023[update]. |
|
Adobe Inc. is a big American company that makes computer software. It's based in San Jose, California. Adobe is famous for creating software that helps people make and share all kinds of digital content. This includes graphics, photos, drawings, animations, videos, and things for printing.
Some of their most well-known products are Adobe Photoshop for editing images, Adobe Illustrator for creating drawings, and Adobe Acrobat Reader for viewing Portable Document Format (PDF) files. They also make many tools for creating and editing audio and video.
Adobe used to sell its products in a package called Adobe Creative Suite. Now, they offer them as a subscription service called Adobe Creative Cloud. This means you pay a regular fee to use the software. The company has also grown into making software for digital marketing.
Adobe was started in December 1982 by John Warnock and Charles Geschke. They left another company, Xerox PARC, to create and sell a special language for printers called PostScript. In 1985, Apple Computer used PostScript in its printers. This helped start the "desktop publishing" revolution, making it easier for anyone to design and print documents.
Over the years, Adobe bought other companies like Macromedia. This added popular tools like Adobe Flash and Adobe Dreamweaver to their collection. They also developed video editing software like Adobe Premiere Pro.
As of 2022, Adobe has over 26,000 employees around the world. They have major offices in the United States and in India.
Contents
Adobe's Story
The Early Days (1980s)
Adobe started in John Warnock's garage! The company's name, Adobe, comes from Adobe Creek in Los Altos, California. This stream ran behind Warnock's house and was named after the type of clay found there. The word "adobe" is Spanish for "mudbrick."
Adobe's first logo was a stylish "A" designed by Marva Warnock, John Warnock's wife. In 2020, the company updated its logo to be all red.
In 1982, Steve Jobs (who co-founded Apple) tried to buy Adobe for $5 million, but Warnock and Geschke said no. Instead, they sold him shares worth 19% of the company. This deal, along with an advance payment for PostScript, made Adobe the first company in Silicon Valley to make a profit in its very first year!
Warnock and Geschke decided to focus on creating special software for printing. This led to the PostScript language. PostScript became the first international standard for computer printing. It could describe how letters looked in many languages. By 1987, PostScript was the standard printer language, used by many software programs and printer companies.
After PostScript, Adobe created digital fonts in their own format called Type 1. Apple later made a competing standard called TrueType, which Microsoft also used.
In the mid-1980s, Adobe launched Adobe Illustrator, a drawing program for the Apple Macintosh. Illustrator helped make PostScript-enabled laser printers very popular.
Adobe joined the NASDAQ Composite stock market in 1986. The company's earnings grew a lot, from about $1 billion in 1999 to $4 billion in 2012.
In 1989, Adobe released what would become its most important product: Adobe Photoshop. This was a powerful image editing program for the Macintosh. Photoshop quickly became the top program in its field.
Growing Bigger (1990s)
In 1993, Adobe introduced the PDF, or Portable Document Format. They also released their Adobe Acrobat and Reader software to view these files. PDF is now an international standard for documents.
Adobe continued to grow by buying other companies. In 1991, they released Adobe Premiere, a video editing program. They later renamed it Adobe Premiere Pro. In 1994, Adobe bought Aldus Corporation, adding programs like Adobe PageMaker (for desktop publishing) and Adobe After Effects (for visual effects) to their lineup. They also gained control of the TIFF image format. In 1995, they acquired Adobe FrameMaker, a program for long documents.
New Products and Changes (2000s)
In 2005, Adobe bought its main competitor, Macromedia, for about $3.4 billion. This was a huge deal! It added many popular programs to Adobe's collection, including Adobe ColdFusion, Adobe Captivate, Adobe Dreamweaver, and Adobe Flash.
In 2008, Adobe launched Acrobat.com, which offered online tools for working together. They also released Creative Suite 4, a collection of their software. Due to a tough economy, Adobe had to reduce its staff by about 8% in late 2008.
In 2009, Adobe bought Omniture, a company that specialized in online marketing and web analytics. These products became part of the Adobe Marketing Cloud.
Modern Era (2010s)
The 2010s saw some disagreements between Adobe and Apple. Apple decided not to support Adobe Flash on its iPhones and iPads. Apple's CEO, Steve Jobs, said Flash wasn't reliable or secure enough. Adobe disagreed, saying Apple wanted to control its platform.
Adobe continued to acquire companies, adding new technologies. In 2011, they bought DemDex, which helped with online marketing. They also acquired Nitobi Software, the creators of PhoneGap, a tool for making mobile apps.
In 2013, Adobe faced a major security issue. A lot of customer information, including encrypted credit card details and passwords, was stolen and shared online. Adobe worked to fix this and offered help to affected customers.
In 2018, Adobe partnered with Nvidia to improve their AI (Artificial Intelligence) and machine learning features in programs like Photoshop. They also bought Magento Commerce for $1.68 billion to boost their e-commerce services, and Marketo for $4.75 billion for marketing automation. In October 2018, the company officially changed its name from Adobe Systems Incorporated to Adobe Inc. In 2019, they acquired Allegorithmic, a company specializing in 3D textures.
Recent Years (2020s)
In 2020, the yearly Adobe Summit event was held online because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Millions of people watched the videos and visited the website.
In 2020, Adobe bought Workfront, a company that makes software for marketing teams to work together. In 2021, they acquired Frame.io, a cloud-based platform for video collaboration. Also in 2021, Adobe announced they would add payment services to their e-commerce platform.
Attempt to Buy Figma
In September 2022, Adobe announced plans to buy Figma for $20 billion. Figma makes cloud-based design software that competes with Adobe's own XD program. However, this deal faced a lot of questions from regulators in the United Kingdom and the European Union. In December 2023, Adobe and Figma decided to cancel the merger because they couldn't get approval from these regulators.
Adobe's Products
Adobe makes many different software programs, online services, and file formats. Here are some of their main products:
| Name | Icon | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Photoshop |  |
For editing photos and creating images |
| Photoshop Elements |  |
A simpler photo editor for hobbyists |
| Illustrator |  |
For creating drawings and vector graphics |
| FreeHand |  |
Another vector graphics editor |
| Acrobat DC |  |
For viewing, creating, and editing PDF files |
| FrameMaker |  |
For making complex documents |
| XD |  |
For designing websites and mobile apps |
| InDesign |  |
For designing layouts for print and digital publishing |
| Lightroom |  |
For organizing and editing many photos |
| Express |  |
A design tool for web and mobile |
| InCopy | .svg){kind=icon} |
A simple word processor |
| Name | Icon | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Dreamweaver |  |
For building websites |
| Flash |  |
For creating interactive multimedia content |
| Name | Icon | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Premiere Pro |  |
A professional video editor |
| Premiere Elements |  |
A simpler video editor for hobbyists |
| Audition | .svg){kind=icon} |
For editing audio |
| After Effects |  |
For visual effects and motion graphics |
| Character Animator | .svg){kind=icon} |
For animating characters using your movements |
| Prelude | .svg){kind=icon} |
For organizing video footage |
| Animate | .svg){kind=icon} |
For creating computer animations |
| Name | Icon | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Captivate |  |
For creating online courses |
| Presenter Video Express |  |
For recording and editing screen videos |
| Connect | .svg){kind=icon} |
For online meetings and video calls |
| Name | Icon | Type |
|---|---|---|
| ColdFusion |  |
For quickly developing web applications |
| Content Server |  |
For managing digital rights for e-books |
| LiveCycle |  |
Software for business processes |
| Name | Icon | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Aero | .svg){kind=icon} |
For creating and sharing augmented reality experiences |
| Dimension |  |
For creating 3D scenes and designs |
| Substance 3D |  |
For posing and customizing 3D models |
- Digital Marketing Software: Adobe Marketing Cloud, Adobe Experience Manager, and Mixamo. These help businesses manage their online marketing.
- Formats: Adobe created important file formats like Portable Document Format (PDF), PostScript, ActionScript, and Flash Video (FLV).
- Web Services: Adobe offers online services like Adobe Color, Photoshop Express, Acrobat.com, Behance, and Adobe Express.
- Adobe Stock: This is a service where you can find and license millions of high-quality, royalty-free images and videos for your projects.
- Adobe Experience Platform: This platform uses Adobe's special AI (artificial intelligence) and machine learning system, Sensei, to help businesses with content, development, and customer relationships.
Criticisms and Challenges
Pricing Concerns
Adobe has sometimes been criticized because its software prices were much higher in some countries outside the US. For example, European customers sometimes paid a lot more for the same software. This led to protests from users who felt the pricing was unfair.
Security Issues
Like many software companies, Adobe has faced challenges with security. Sometimes, hackers have found ways to get into computers by using weaknesses in Adobe programs like Adobe Reader and Flash Player. Adobe has worked to fix these issues and improve security.
In 2013, there was a major security breach where customer data, including usernames and passwords, was stolen. Adobe worked to inform affected customers and improve their security measures.
Business Practices
Adobe has also faced criticism regarding its business practices. For example, when Adobe bought Macromedia, they gained control of a program called FreeHand, which competed with their own Illustrator. Adobe eventually stopped developing FreeHand, which upset many users.
More recently, some customers have complained about cancellation fees for their Adobe Creative Cloud subscriptions. This has led to discussions online about finding alternative software.
Leaders of Adobe
- John Warnock (1982–2000) - Co-founder and first CEO
- Bruce Chizen (2000–2007)
- Shantanu Narayen (2007–present) - Current CEO
See Also
In Spanish: Adobe (empresa) para niños
- Adobe MAX
- Digital rights management (DRM)
- List of acquisitions by Adobe
- United States v. Elcom Ltd.
Images for kids
-
Adobe Photoshop icon
-
Photoshop Elements icon
-
Adobe Illustrator icon
-
Adobe FreeHand icon
-
Adobe Acrobat DC icon
-
Adobe FrameMaker icon
-
Adobe XD icon
-
Adobe InDesign icon
-
Adobe Lightroom icon
-
Adobe Express icon
-
Adobe InCopy icon
-
Adobe Dreamweaver icon
-
Adobe Flash icon
-
Adobe Premiere Pro icon
-
Adobe Premiere Elements icon
-
Adobe Audition icon
-
Adobe After Effects icon
-
Adobe Character Animator icon
-
Adobe Prelude icon
-
Adobe Animate icon
-
Adobe Captivate icon
-
Adobe Presenter Video Express icon
-
Adobe Connect icon
-
Adobe ColdFusion icon
-
Adobe Content Server icon
-
Adobe LiveCycle icon
-
Adobe Aero icon
-
Adobe Dimension icon
-
Adobe Substance 3D icon
