Adobe was founded in 1982 by John Warnock and Charles Geschke in San Jose, California. The company’s first product was PostScript, a page description language that helped launch the desktop publishing revolution. Adobe went on to create some of the most important creative software tools ever made: Photoshop (1990), Illustrator (1987), Acrobat/PDF (1993), InDesign (1999), and Premiere Pro.
In 2012, Adobe made a bold and initially controversial decision to move its entire product line to a subscription model — Creative Cloud. Users could no longer buy perpetual licenses; they had to subscribe monthly. Despite initial backlash, the transition was enormously successful financially. Creative Cloud now has over 30 million subscribers.
Adobe’s business spans three clouds: Creative Cloud (Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Lightroom, etc.), Document Cloud (Acrobat, PDF services, Adobe Sign), and Experience Cloud (analytics, marketing automation, commerce — including the Magento-based Adobe Commerce).
Annual revenue exceeded $19 billion in fiscal 2023, with operating margins around 35%. Adobe is one of the most profitable software companies in the world. A planned $20 billion acquisition of Figma was abandoned in late 2023 after antitrust regulators in the US and EU raised objections.
Adobe has integrated generative AI deeply into its products through Firefly, its family of AI models trained on licensed and public domain content. Firefly powers AI features across Photoshop, Illustrator, and other Creative Cloud apps.
Headquartered in San Jose, California, Adobe employs over 29,000 people. CEO Shantanu Narayen has led the company since 2007, overseeing the successful cloud transition.
