Thursday, 15 November 2007

Adobe Names new CEO

Adobe has appointed current president and chief operating officer Shantanu Narayen as its new president and chief executive officer.

Narayen, who will take office effective December 1, 2007, will also simultaneously join Adobe’s Board of Directors.

Narayen replaces Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen, who will serve the remainder of his term on Adobe’s Board of Directors through the Spring of 2008 and continue in a strategic advisory capacity through the end of fiscal year 2008.

“Bruce Chizen’s vision has helped transform Adobe from a company that was known mainly for its popular design products into one of the largest and most diversified software companies in the world,” said Chuck Geschke and John Warnock, Adobe’s chairmen of the Board of Directors.

“We thank him for his outstanding leadership and contributions to Adobe’s success during his entire 14 years at Adobe and the past seven as CEO.”

“Shantanu’s extensive knowledge of our products and platforms, customer experience and exceptional operational leadership make him the ideal choice to lead Adobe as CEO,” said Chizen.

"I am honored to assume the leadership of Adobe and to continue to carry on the legacy of Bruce and our founders, John and Chuck,” said Narayen.

"I look forward to continuing Adobe’s tradition of technology leadership and innovation, and helping the company achieve its next phase of growth.”

Narayen, who joined Adobe in January 1998, spearheaded the acquisition of Macromedia, Inc. in 2005, expanding Adobe’s software platform and solutions and strengthening the company’s presence in key markets ranging from video to enterprise software to mobile solutions. Prior to joining Adobe, he was director of desktop and collaboration products at Silicon Graphics Inc. and held various senior positions at Apple.

Together with this announcement, Adobe also updated the media on its expectations to achieve results near the high end of its fourth quarter revenue target range of 860 million dollars to 890 million dollars. The company plans to report its fourth quarter and fiscal 2007 year-end results on December 17, 2007 after the market closes.

For fiscal year 2008, Adobe announced it is targeting annual revenue growth of approximately 13 percent.