Adobe buying photo marketplace Fotolia for $800M • 4:20 PM
Eric Jhonsa, SA News Editor
Along with its FQ4 beat, Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) announces it's buying Fotolio, a top marketplace for royalty-free photos and videos, for $800M in cash. The deal is expected to close in Q1 2015.
Fotolia, which competes against the likes of Shutterstock (NYSE:SSTK) and Getty Images, claims to offer 34M+ photos and videos for sale. Naturally, Adobe plans to integrate Fotolia with Creative Cloud, and offer its services to the Creative Cloud base.
The purchase follows Adobe's 2012 acquisition of digital artwork/portfolio-sharing site Behance, reportedly for ~$150M. More recently, Adobe launched a curated marketplace for Creative Cloud content (icons, vector graphics, etc.).
ADBE +5% AH.

Adobe Press Release


admin edit: added link and made the subject more descriptive

Gee, maybe I can use my payout to pay that insane Cloud subscription I am FORCED to buy (unless of course I want to stop working completely or use Inkscape or iView to do my professional work)... greed knows no bounds.

I wonder what happens to DPC now. Will DPC be part of the deal - or could it go as a separate enterprise...?

fotolia is not worth 80 mil,.... overpriced deal

Quote from: Cesar on December 11, 2014, 21:51
fotolia is not worth 80 mil,.... overpriced deal
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very interesting. this could mean quite a boost for fotolia, to be part of the adobe creative community.

what will the other players do now?

Quote from: cobalt on December 11, 2014, 21:57
very interesting. this could mean quite a boost for fotolia, to be part of the adobe creative community.

what will the other players do now?

Buy Canva, it will be vulnerable now.

One reason more not using their cloud service, I can live with my PS CS 6 for a very long time.

Does 'disuptive' Oleg leave Fotolia with all this money or will he still manage the place? Does anyone know?

It will be interesting to see at what terms they will "offer its services to the Creative Cloud base".
And what that will mean for contributors.

One heads up to Adobe: if you mess with contributors, your 800 million investment is at risk. Without content there's nothing you can "integrate with Creative Cloud".

The real way to go would be to admit that the previous owners have neglected contributors for too long and that Adobe (as being an integrall part of that creative community - you want those contributors to use your products, right?) will change that by improving conditions. E.g. raise commissions, remove crappy re-seller deals etc.

Quote from: cobalt on December 11, 2014, 21:57
what will the other players do now?

Well I've heard a rumour that the Gimp is planning to buy Dreamstime.

Quote from: dirkr on December 11, 2014, 22:11
..... remove crappy re-seller deals etc.

It will be interesting what in general will happen to the reseller deals. I assume Adobe would prefer more exclusive than generic material on their cloud since this is a selling argument for their platform.

Quote from: bunhill on December 11, 2014, 22:15

Quote from: cobalt on December 11, 2014, 21:57
what will the other players do now?

Well I've heard a rumour that the Gimp is planning to buy Dreamstime.

LOL - and Corel will buy YAY-Micro for for a symbolic buck

doubble posting, sorry

Quote from: roede-orm on December 11, 2014, 22:21

Quote from: bunhill on December 11, 2014, 22:15

Quote from: cobalt on December 11, 2014, 21:57
what will the other players do now?

Well I've heard a rumour that the Gimp is planning to buy Dreamstime.

LOL - and Corel will buy YAY-Micro for for a symbolic buck

Hehe, Wallmart buys Getty

For those who want to read it:
The official press release from Adobe.

It will likely mean more subscription sales. Give away free time limited subscription included with their cloud and offer a buy-up to include a full subscription. Perhaps more sales but will definitely be a low sub rates.

Quote from: stockuser on December 11, 2014, 22:08
Does 'disuptive' Oleg leave Fotolia with all this money or will he still manage the place? Does anyone know?

The press release says he "will continue to lead the Fotolia team as part of Adobe's Digital Media business".

In order for this to work for Adobe it will surely mean offering bundled stock as part of the cloud subscription package. In which case that will help Adobe hold off the inevitable decline in Cloud subscriptions and will therefore help to support the stock price some while longer. Investors are most focused on the number of subscriptions - at almost any cost. Other stock companies will inevitably lose subscription revenue to Adobe.

Quote from: dirkr on December 11, 2014, 22:29
The press release says he "will continue to lead the Fotolia team as part of Adobe's Digital Media business".

3 years typically.

How will it affect photographer royalties? Will a lot more images be licensed, or will more professional creative users of Adobe products use Dollar Photo Club instead of paying a slightly higher price to buy images elsewhere?

Quote from: Pickerell on December 11, 2014, 22:45
How will it affect photographer royalties? Will a lot more images be licensed, or will more professional creative users of Adobe products use Dollar Photo Club instead of paying a slightly higher price to buy images elsewhere?

I think Adobe will just access the database and implement a unique pricing/download/subscription scheme. I doubt it will be based on current paradigms.

More downloads? No Idea. We`ll see.

They pay $800 and own nothing but a distribution system.

This is Adobe's second try at offering stock images. The only thing that's changed (other than prices) is that they now have subscription buyers for their software.

Unless Shutterstock is unusually hard for corporations to do business with (and their success suggests that's not the case) I can't see why any company would buy an inferior subscription, even if cheaper, from Adobe versus just buying from Shutterstock (or any other existing agency).

Great deal for the private equity folks who get out intact - it wasn't clear how they could get their money out otherwise. I would guess from Adobe's perspective it appealed because it was for sale - I can't imagine Serban being willing to sell, and who else among the nearly-successful agencies could they have purchased?

"Adobe plans to integrate Fotolia with Creative Cloud, and offer its services to the Creative Cloud base"

Getting directly in front of millions of Photoshop users is interesting. What the users will pay and what contributors will get is a concern. Will Adobe take an approach to attract contributors or start squeezing contributors for every last drop of profit?

Gonna have to spend a fortune first on sorting out FT's search. That is seriously rough!