Adobe Buys Day Software for $240 Million

Adobe Systems announced plans to purchase open source content management system (CMS) company Day Software for $240 million in cash in a move that should enhance Adobe's ability to help its clients better deliver content across the Web.

In a statement announcing the deal, Rob Tarkoff, Adobe VP-general manager for digital enterprise solutions, said, "Adobe's acquisition of Day represents a key milestone in our efforts toward delivering best-in-class customer experience management solutions to enterprises and governments worldwide. With the addition of Day to our enterprise portfolio, we will be able to enhance the value of our offering and deliver on our vision of the web as the hub of customer interaction."

Going forward, the company said, Day will operate as a product line within Adobe's digital enterprise solutions business unit with Day CEO Erik Hansen joining Adobe and reporting directly to Tarkoff.

Based in Basel, Switzerland and Boston, Day's clients include global brands such as McDonald's, GM, Kodak, Time Inc, NBC Universal, UBS, Credit Suisse, Daimler, and DHL. For the first six months of 2010, Day reported $3.5 million in profits on a 47 percent year-over-year rise in revenue to $23.7 million.

The new acquisition comes less than a year after Adobe purchased online analytics provider Omniture, for $1.8 billion. Adobe, best known for Acrobat and its Flash Platform, said the combination of Day's CMS solutions will enable Adobe's existing customers to better integrate their global Web presence and business applications, unlocking value across their marketing, sales, and service processes.

One CMS executive, who requested anonymity, explained, "Day provides the infrastructure so that you can have your software served better across web sites. It really is plumbing, but the thing this acquisition does is enable marketers to get their content across to their users much easier."