Introduction
The use of acquisitions to restructure and redirect corporate strategies is on the rise today.
Many managers regard the acquisition of a company for access to technology, markets, or
products as quicker means of attaining its objectives rather than through internal efforts. Adobe
has declared its definite agreement to acquire Workfront Company for $1.5 billion (Workfront,
2020). Workfront is a leading management Platform Company for marketers; the firm was
founded in 2001. Will the acquisition of Workfront increase Adobe’s strategic competitiveness?
The paper seeks to answer the question and find out other problems that affect the success of
acquisitions.
Adobe Company
Adobe System Incorporation is the leading company in the world for the development of
desktop publishing software. The organization offers customer experience management that is
essential to marketers, operations managers, and analysts. Adobe Creative Cloud offers the best
creative applications in the world (Adobe, 2020). In addition, it provides services to everyone,
including filmmakers, students, designers, and professional photographers. Adobe Experience
Cloud provides the most comprehensive solution for customer journey management, content and
commerce, and customer insights and data (Workfront, 2020). Additionally, Adobe Cloud
enables businesses of different sizes in every industry to deliver the best customer experience at
a large scale.
Workfront
Workfront is a Software Company based in Utah. It develops web-based work
management that allows solution marketers to manage content professionally. More importantly,
it enhances planning and tracking marketing campaigns. Workfront offers great experiences
when it comes to coordinating marketing flows (Workfront, 2020). Basically, its platform has
extensive integration capabilities, thus making it easy to configure various needs for different
companies.
The Acquisition
Without doubt, Adobe is the world leader in content creation and a reliable partner to
digital leaders. However, satisfying the ever-increasing Business-Two-Business (B2B) and
Business-Two-Consumer (B2C) is a challenge for Adobe. The reason is that it requires a large
volume of content and a personalized marketing campaign that must be delivered fast and in a
timely manner. As a result, there is a need for Adobe to merge with the Workfront.
Strategic Competitiveness
Workfront is equipped with APIs that enhance the continuous connection to the Adobe
Creative Cloud (Workfront, 2020). This is to say, APPIs provide Adobe with an additional
online marketing tool that can be used to manage complex projects within its marketing
department. With the merge with Workfront, Adobe will be able to help modern marketers to
succeed in the ever-evolving setting. As a result, Adobe will remain the choice for many. Adobe
and Workfront used to share some of their customers such as Armour, T-Mobile, Deloitte, and
The Home Depot (Workfront, 2020). The acquisition will allow Adobe to venture into other new
markets.
High Consumer Prices
When companies merge, they increase their market share, and this outcome can lead to
monopolies. Whenever there is less competition for a certain product, the dominating companies
increase prices. However, Adobe can stop hiking consumer prices by eliminating duplication of
BUSINESS ACQUISITIONS 3
roles. For instance, before the merger, the two companies were sharing some customers, and
once they merge, the sales department can be re-organized to become one. This move can be a
cost-cutting strategy hence reducing costs passed to the clients.
Conclusion
Acquisitions have become a new order of the day for managers because it enables
businesses to reach their objectives easily rather than building from internal efforts. Upon
acquiring Workfront, Adobe has increased its global competitiveness because of enhanced
handling capacity. The newly acquired online marketing tool allows Adobe to manage the ever-
increasing demand hence attracting more customers and retaining the existing ones. However,
the increased market share can lead to monopoly for Adobe.
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References
Adobe. (2020, September 30). All Products. Retrieved from:
https://www.adobe.com/products/catalog.html?promoid=PTYTQ77P&mv=other#
Workfront. (2020, November 9). News Releases.Retrieved from:
https://news.workfront.com/2020-11-09-Adobe-to-Acquire-Workfront