Adobe Systems

Adobe Systems Incorporated is an American transnational computer software company. The

company is headquartered inSan Jose, California, United States. Adobe has historically focused
upon the creation of multimedia and creativity software products, with a more-recent foray
towards rich Internet application software development. It is best known for Photoshop, thePortable
Document Format (PDF) and Adobe Creative Suite, as well as its successor Adobe Creative Cloud.
Adobe was founded in February 1982[4] by John Warnock and Charles Geschke, who established the
company after leavingXerox PARC in order to develop and sell the PostScript page description
language. In 1985, Apple Computer licensed PostScript for use in its LaserWriter printers, which
helped spark the desktop publishing revolution.[5]
As of 2015, Adobe Systems has about 13,500 employees, [3] about 40% of whom work in San Jose.
Adobe also has major development operations in Newton, Massachusetts; New York City, New
York; Orlando, Florida; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Lehi, Utah; Seattle, Washington; San
Francisco and San Luis Obispo, California in the United States.

History[edit]
The name of the company, Adobe, comes from Adobe Creek in Los Altos, California, which ran
behind the houses of both of the company's founders.[4] Adobe's corporate logo features a stylized
"A" and was designed by the wife of John Warnock, Marva Warnock, who is a graphic designer.[6]
Adobe's first products after PostScript were digital fonts, which they released in a proprietary format
called Type 1. Applesubsequently developed a competing standard, TrueType, which provided full
scalability and precise control of the pixelpattern created by the font's outlines, and licensed it
to Microsoft. Adobe responded by publishing the Type 1 specification and releasing Adobe Type
Manager, software that allowed WYSIWYG scaling of Type 1 fonts on screen - like TrueType without
the precise pixel-level control.[citation needed] But these moves were too late to stop the rise of TrueType.
Although Type 1 remained the standard in the graphics/publishing market, TrueType became the
standard for business and the average Windows user. In 1996, Adobe and Microsoft announced
the OpenType font format, and in 2003 Adobe completed converting its Type 1 font library to
OpenType.[citation needed]
In the mid-1980s, Adobe entered the consumer software market with Adobe Illustrator, a vectorbased drawing program for the Apple Macintosh. Illustrator, which grew from the firm's in-house fontdevelopment software, helped popularize PostScript-enabled laser printers. Unlike MacDraw, the
then standard Macintosh vector drawing program, Illustrator described shapes with more
flexible Bzier curves, providing unprecedented accuracy.[citation needed] Font rendering in Illustrator,

however, was left to the Macintosh's QuickDraw libraries and would not be superseded by a
PostScript-like approach until Adobe released Adobe Type Manager.[citation needed]
Adobe Systems entered NASDAQ in 1986. Its revenue has grown from roughly $1 billion in 1999 to
roughly $4 billion in 2012.[7] Adobe's fiscal years run from December to November. For example, the
2007 fiscal year ended on November 30, 2007.
In 1989, Adobe introduced what was to become its flagship product, a graphics editing program for
the Macintosh called Photoshop. Stable and full-featured, Photoshop 1.0 was ably marketed by
Adobe and soon dominated the market.[8]
In 1993, Adobe introduced PDF, the Portable Document Format, and its Adobe Acrobat and
Reader software. PDF is now an International Standard: ISO 32000-1:2008. The technology is
adopted worldwide as a common medium for electronic documents.[citation needed]
In December 1991, Adobe released Adobe Premiere, which Adobe rebranded to Adobe Premiere
Pro in 2003. In 1994, Adobe acquired Aldus and added Adobe PageMaker andAdobe After Effects to
its product line later in the year; it also controls the TIFF file format. In 1995, Adobe added Adobe
FrameMaker, the long-document DTP application, to its product line after Adobe acquired Frame
Technology Corp. In 1996, Adobe Systems Inc added Ares Software Corp.[9] In 1999, Adobe
introduced Adobe InCopy as a direct competitor to QuarkCopyDesk.[citation needed]

Adobe Systems Canada in Ottawa, Ontario (not far from archrival Corel).

In 1992, Adobe acquired OCR Systems, Inc.; in 1994, the company acquired Aldus Corporation. On
May 30, 1997, Adobe reincorporated in Delaware by merging with and into Adobe Systems
(Delaware), which had incorporated on May 9, 1997. Adobe Systems Incorporated (Delaware), the
surviving corporation, changed its name to Adobe Systems Incorporated concurrently with the
merger.[citation needed]
The company acquired GoLive Systems, Inc. and released Adobe GoLive in 1999 and began
shipping Adobe InDesign as a direct competitor to QuarkXPress and as an eventual replacement
for PageMaker. In May 2003, Adobe acquired Syntrillium Software, addingAdobe Audition to its
product line. In December 2004, French company OKYZ S.A., makers of 3D collaboration software,
was acquired. This acquisition added 3D technology and expertise to the Adobe Intelligent
Document Platform.[citation needed]

On December 12, 2005, Adobe acquired its main rival Macromedia in a stock swap valued at about
$3.4 billion, adding Adobe ColdFusion,Adobe Contribute, Adobe Captivate, Adobe Acrobat
Connect (formerly Macromedia Breeze), Adobe Director, Adobe Dreamweaver,Adobe
Fireworks, Adobe Flash, FlashPaper, Adobe Flex, Adobe FreeHand, Adobe HomeSite, Adobe
JRun, Adobe Presenter, and Adobe Authorware to Adobe's product line.[10]
On November 12, 2007, CEO, Bruce Chizen resigned. Effective December 1, he was replaced
by Shantanu Narayen, Adobe's current president and Chief Operating Officer. Bruce Chizen served
out his term on Adobe's Board of Directors, and then continued in a strategic advisory role until the
end of Adobe's 2008 fiscal year.[citation needed]
Adobe released Adobe Media Player in April 2008. On April 27, Adobe discontinued development
and sales of its older HTML/web development software, GoLive in favor ofDreamweaver. Adobe
offered a discount on Dreamweaver for GoLive users and supports those who still use GoLive with
online tutorials and migration assistance. On June 1, Adobe launched Acrobat.com, a series of web
applications geared for collaborative work.[11] Creative Suite 4, which includes Design, Web,
Production Premium and Master Collection came out in October 2008 in six configurations at prices
from about USD $1,700 to $2,500[12] or by individual application.[13] The Windows version of
Photoshop includes 64-bit processing.[13] On December 3, 2008, Adobe laid off 600 of its employees
(8% of the worldwide staff) citing the weak economic environment.
Adobe announced two acquisitions in 2009: on August 29, it purchased Business Catalyst,[citation
needed]

and on September 15, it bought Omniture.[citation needed] On November 10, the company laid off 680

employees.[14] Adobe announced it was investigating a "coordinated attack" against corporate

network systems in China, managed by the company.[15]
Adobe's 2010 was marked by continuing front-and-back arguments with Apple over the latter's nonsupport for Adobe Flash on its iPhone, iPad and other products.[16] Apple CEO Steve Jobs claimed
that Flash was not reliable or secure enough, while Adobe executives have argued that Apple wish
to maintain control over the iOS platform. In April 2010, Steve Jobs published a post titled "Thoughts
on Flash" where he outlined his thoughts on Adobe Flash and the rise of HTML 5.[17] In July 2010,
Adobe bought Day Software[18]integrating their line of CQ Products: WCM,[19] DAM,[20] SOCO,[21] and
Mobile[22]
In January 2011, Adobe acquired DemDex, Inc. with the intent of adding DemDex's audienceoptimization software to its online marketing suite. [23] At Photoshop World 2011, Adobe unveiled a
new mobile photo service.[24] Carousel is a new application for iPhone, iPad and Mac that uses
Photoshop Lightroom technology for users to adjust and fine-tune images on all platforms.
[24]

Carousel will also allow users to automatically sync, share and browse photos. [24] The service was

later renamed to "Adobe Revel".[25] On November 9, 2011, Adobe announced that they would cease
development of Flash for mobile devices following version 11.1. Instead it would focus on HTML 5 for

mobile devices.[26] On December 1, 2011, Adobe announced that it entered into a definitive
agreement to acquire privately held Efficient Frontier.[27]
In December 2012, Adobe opened a new 280,000 square foot corporate campus in Lehi, UT.[28]
In 2013, Adobe Systems endured a major security breach. Vast portions of the source code for the
company's software were stolen and posted online[29] and over 150 million records of Adobe's
customers have been made readily available for download. [30] In 2012, about 40 million sets of
payment card information were compromised by a hack of Adobe. [31]
A class-action lawsuit alleging that the company suppressed employee compensation was filed
against Adobe, and three other Silicon Valley-based companies in a Californiafederal district court in
2013.[32] In May 2014, it was revealed the four companies, Adobe, Apple, Google, and Intel had
reached agreement with the plaintiffs, 64,000 employees of the four companies, to pay a sum of
$324.5 million to settle the suit.