Adobe Inc., the American software multinational, spoke about its plan to purchase Workfront Inc. for USD 1.5 billion to add a collaboration tool to its marketing software. Adobe plans to provide these extended offerings due to the pandemic that has made it inevitable for enterprises to maintain productivity as employees are on the work from home module.

Based out of San Jose, California, Adobe expects to close the deal anytime between December to February 2021. Workfront, the work management platform company based out of Lehi, Utah, will merge into Adobe with a portfolio of 3,000 customers and one million users.

On the solutions front, Workfront Inc. offers marketers with features that help marketers rely on effective management of content, plan, and track marketing campaigns, and execute complex workflows across teams.

Solutions offered by Adobe are a mix of creativity and customer experience management and critical to marketers, analysts, creatives, and now also to ops managers. Adobe Creative Cloud is involved in delivering the world’s finest and creative apps and services to a range of audiences, from students to social media influencers to filmmakers, designers, and more. But the leader in the graphics and visual software industry for decades is not offering collaboration tools.

Meeting the expectation of B2B and B2C customers these days demands large volumes of content and personalized marketing campaigns that are delivered at a lighting fast pace and scale. This task needs to be accomplished with increasingly scattered teams as remote work in the pandemic has become inevitable and the future of work has been redefined.

The blend of Adobe Experience Cloud and Workfront together will bring efficiency, productivity, and collaboration gains to marketing teams that are current facing challenges due to siloed work management solutions.

Workfront comes with a deep leadership in coordinating marketing workflows. Workfront’s platform is flexible and uniquely developed for businesses with extensive integration features that can be easily configured to meet a variety of needs of businesses of all sizes.

The amalgamation

Adobe and Workfront showcase a terrific partnership with strong  product synergies and a growing base of more than 1,000 shared customers. Workfront with APIs in its arsenal assures a seamless connection to Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Experience Cloud.

Common customers between Adobe and Workfront include names such as Deloitte, Nordstrom, T-Mobile, Under Armour, Prudential Financial, and The Home Depot.

The expert take

Anil Chakravarthy, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Digital Experience Business and Worldwide Field Operations, Adobe, said “Adobe is the undisputed leader in content creation, management, delivery, and measurement and a trusted partner to digital leaders around the globe.” He added, “The combination of Adobe and Workfront will further accelerate Adobe’s leadership in customer experience management, providing a pioneering solution that spans the entire lifecycle of digital experiences, from ideation to activation.”

Alex Shootman, CEO, Workfront, stated, “Adobe and Workfront share a common affinity to help the modern marketer thrive in an ever-evolving, increasingly demanding setting.” He added, “We’re excited to join Adobe and believe this will be a tremendous opportunity for our customers and partners.”

The hierarchy

On close of the deal, Alex Shootman, CEO of Workfront, will continue to lead the Workfront team and will report to Anil Chakravarthy, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Digital Experience Business and Worldwide Field Operations.