Where Adobe Fits In

Apple, Google, and Microsoft all have lengthy acquisition histories. As each company’s scope has widened they decided to acquire other firms in order to accelerate their ability to develop products beyond their traditional core solutions.

I came across this interview with Shantanu Narayen, Adobe’s CEO, in the current issue of Newsweek. In this interview, Narayen spoke about his professional development as well as Adobe’s role in the current technology environment. One particularly interesting element was that Adobe views Apple, Google, and Microsoft as partners in many respects and competitors in others. Apple’s resistance to including Flash on their mobile products has obviously been a major source of contention; however, beyond that Adobe and the other three companies have a vested interest in ensuring that there are compatible elements across their various platforms.

Another line that caught my eye was, “…the DNA of the company is not [that of] a fast follower.” In the video of the interview, Narayen elaborates (at about the 32 minute mark) that Adobe tries to invent markets and they do this through in-house product development rather than acquisitions. This seems to diverge from Apple, Google, and Microsoft’s extensive acquisition activity.

Over the coming years, with the increasing role of apps and the development of HTML5, it will be interesting to see whether Adobe is able to continue to innovate at the same pace in-house or if they will need to more actively seek new talent in order to be more agile.