“Adobe Systems Inc. shares fell 3.7 percent after the company forecast second-quarter profit that missed analysts’ estimates, hampered by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan,” Aaron Ricadela reports for Bloomberg. “Profit excluding some costs will be 47 cents to 54 cents a share this quarter, Adobe said yesterday in a statement. That compared with the 56-cent average of projections compiled by Bloomberg. Revenue will be $970 million to $1.02 billion, the company said. Analysts had estimated sales of $1.04 billion.”
Ricadela reports, “Adobe cut its revenue forecast by $50 million because of the disaster in Japan. The company gets 10 percent to 15 percent of its revenue each quarter from that country, making it Adobe’s second-largest market after the U.S… Adobe fell $1.20 to $31.68 at 4 p.m. New York time on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The shares have dropped 9.1 percent since March 10, the day before the earthquake struck in Japan.”
“Adobe plans to release an update to its Creative Suite software that will make it easier for designers to build websites using the HTML5 Internet standard. The company released Creative Suite 5, which includes the Photoshop and Illustrator programs, last April. The next major version will arrive in 2012, Chief Executive Officer Shantanu Narayen said on a conference call yesterday,” Ricadela reports. “The HTML5 standard, which is supported by Apple Inc. and Google Inc., competes with Adobe’s Flash Internet video and animation software. In the past year, Adobe has clashed with Apple, which bans Flash on the iPad tablet computer and iPhone.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Adobe inflicts Flash 10.2 beta; Android phone ‘chokes’ on test video – March 18, 2011
Adobe Flash hit with new ‘critical’ zero-day attack; iOS users unaffected – March 15, 2011
Firefox VP: Adobe Flash is doomed – March 11, 2011
Adobe capitulates to Apple, releases Flash-HTML5 convertor – March 8, 2011
It’s a Flash Fall.
Yeah, Adobe, blame it on the Japan events, to deflect the attention of Flash being a dead end.
We haven’t seen nothing yet as far as stock drops go, but as soon as the real reason dawns on the anal-ists, times will get more interesting.
Or a flash in Japan.
“…second-quarter profit that missed analysts’ estimates, hampered by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan” ???
Now what in the world could the earthquake & tsunami in Japan have done to affect a seller of software?? Was Adobe expecting all those people in northern Japan to have purchased CS4 the week the earthquake happened? This just doesn’t make sense.
Its a *forecast* for the second quarter.
Considering all orders for adobe software in japan probably came to a screaming halt when the quake hit I’m sure they changed a few cells in their spreadsheet and got a decent picture of where they are going with second quarter earnings.
I didn’t realize that there were so many manga artists using Illustrator, etc.
I don’t plan on buying anything Adobe unless I’m forced to use their POS products. Even at that I’ll have my employers pay for it.
the license rules require one update every three versions to maintain it.
at the pace for CS6/7/8, I will have 5-6 more years before I have to update and give Adobe more money
Well, Well, Well, This is just a slip in the flash!
I was going to update from CS3 to CS5, but the penalty for skipping CS4 was so great I decided to skip CS5 as well.
If the pricing were more reasonable, I would update with every version.
If each version were a significant, meaningful improvement, I would update with every version.
I don’t begrudge Adobe their price for their products. I pay the price or I don’t, just as I pay even more for SolidWorks.
My only question is whether they would actually get more growth if they pared down the CS pricing, coupled with more options on the iPad side. I am sure they have analyzed this to death, but…
I meet all sorts of people who would love to buy CS5, but don’t have the free cash. What did auto dealers do? The struck up deals where a lender provided the cash and Adobe Autos walks off with a discounted cash sale. Given the state of the economy and still the demand, I wonder if it would not work.
The hardest thing for a public company to do is to lower prices to try to gain sales, because the manager that suggest that approach will get crucified (maybe not literally, but get his job axed) if he misses his targets.
Apple’s developers who have put things on the App Store and the iTunes App side for iPad/Phone seem to have found unexpectedly good revenue there.
My point is if you are not exploring ALL the sales options, you are leaving sales you could get.
If the price for updating from CS3 to CS5 had been the same as the price for updating from CS4 to CS5 I would have updated. Adobe would have had at least one additional sale.
Their insistence on penalizing those who skip an update is what killed it for me.
Adobe, RIM, Nokia, Dell, Microsoft gently sliding down and down…
Adobe is a company which these days doesn’t treat it’s customers fairly. People who used to buy Adobe products are avoiding them whenever possible or else upgrading less frequently.
If they cared more about their customers, things might be different, but the bottom line is that sales are falling and would still be if there had been no Japanese earthquake.
Apple is a company that pursues excellence, together with the customer experience and there is a well known ‘halo’ effect, where one Apple product serves as an ambassador for others. Adobe has managed to reverse that situation. They have ended up with an arrangement where each product tarnishes their others.
Flash it important, I use it to warm up my MacBook to heat the house. The only other sofware that makes my MacBook running that hot is handbrake and they are converting flash base videos to other format. No wonder Adobe is failing what other software is a fire hazard.
hampered by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan ??? What’s the heck going to do with it ? May b adobe office i believe.
Adobe lost its mojo a long time ago. The sales are just now catching up to an old reality.
They were dead the minute they announced their “Network Publishing” initiative back in ye olden times, prior to the Ajax revolution.
Hey guys, you can say what you want about Adobe but did anyone look and see what percentage of revenue comes out of Japan. I was shocked to see it. I really don’t understand all the hate. If you don’t like them, don’t use them.