Adobe buys audience engagement platform Livefyre

Livefyre, which announced last fall that it was the only user-generated content (UGC) service natively integrated with Adobe and Salesforce’s marketing clouds, is being acquired by Adobe.

Today’s announcement, which did not specify the terms, means that Adobe is making a bigger bet on the importance to marketers of UGC and user commenting. Both Adobe and Salesforce had previously been investors in Livefyre.

Livefyre CEO and founder Jordan Kretchmer noted that the previous Adobe integration is with Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), the part of the Marketing Cloud that provides a content management system for websites and mobile apps.

Here’s a screen shot of Livefyre integrated inside AEM:

Now, he told me, Livefyre will be directly integrated with the rest of the Adobe family, starting with the Creative Cloud’s Assets. This means that the Livefyre platform will available to anyone who has access to that asset manager. The widely used Adobe Analytics in the Marketing Cloud will also eventually track Livefyre activity, as Livefyre works its way into full integration across Adobe’s skyline.

Kretchmer added that, although Livefyre will become a full member of Adobe’s family, it will also continue as an independent platform. In fact, he said, Livefyre will continue its integration with Adobe competitor Salesforce and is available for other platforms.

“You’ll be able to purchase Livefyre like [Adobe] Analytics,” he said, a la carte or part of the whole package. The functionality for existing customers will remain the same, at least for now.

Livefyre allows brands to find, sort, license from their creators and publish UGC to web pages, media walls and other destinations, along with user commenting capabilities. Last fall, it launched a new version of its platform. In 2013, it bought blogging platform Storify, which enabled users to combine social posts into a single story.

For the next three to six months, Kretchmer said, Livefyre will keep its name, annotated as being “a part of Adobe Experience Manager.” After that, he said, it will evolve into some kind of as-yet-undetermined “Adobe naming convention.”

The Livefyre San Francisco team will move into Adobe’s headquarters in that city, while the New York office will join Adobe at its Times Square location. Kretchmer said there will be a “minimum restructuring” of staff, with those who are displaced offered “other work at Adobe.” His new title is now Senior Director and General Manager of Livefyre.