Martech: Martech is Marketing Logo
  • Topics
    Digital Transformation
    Marketing Operations
    Data
    Customer & Digital Experience
    Performance Marketing
    Marketing Management
    Special Reports
    All Topics
  • Conference
  • Webinars
  • Intelligence Reports
  • White Papers
  • What is MarTech

Processing...Please wait.

MarTech » Customer & Digital Experience » With Adobe possibly eyeing Marketo, what would that mega-merger mean?

With Adobe possibly eyeing Marketo, what would that mega-merger mean?

According to a Reuters report, unnamed sources say Adobe is in negotiations to buy Marketo Inc. to extend its marketing automation offerings.

Amy Gesenhues on September 14, 2018 at 12:56 pm | Reading time: 3 minutes

Adobe may be looking to build out its marketing automation offerings. According to a Reuters report released Thursday, the company is rumored to be purchasing Marketo, a platform used by major B2B marketers, including Citrix, McKesson, Charles Schwab and Panasonic.

Adobe’s Creative Cloud solutions are the core of its business. Designed to help marketers create and manage media-rich assets, the missing link for Adobe right now is the ability to offer a more full-scale digital marketing solution. With the addition of Marketo’s wide range of digital marketing products — from its account based marketing platform to its email, mobile and social marketing offerings — Adobe would be able to capture a bigger share of its clients’ marketing budgets while bringing on new clients that want more of a one-stop shop.

Anita Brearton, the founder and CEO of CabinetM, believes the potential acquisition of Marketo makes sense for Adobe.

“As they [Adobe] reach into more and more layers of the marketing stack marketing automation is a natural extension for them,” says Brearton.

Offering a marketing technology management platform for enterprise-level marketers, CabinetM has in-depth data on the cross-over between companies that use both Adobe and Marketo. According to the CEO, among CabinetM clients using Adobe, Marketo is the fourth most popular product in those clients’ marketing stacks – behind Google Analytics, LinkedIn and Twitter — which Brearton says are in everyone’s stacks.

“Narrowing to stacks with the Adobe Marketing Cloud, Marketo is in the top 10 of other products used alongside the Adobe Marketing Cloud,” says Brearton.

“From a marketer perspective, it’s hard to know whether it will change much other than potentially providing some buying efficiencies. We’ll have to wait and see if this impacts product functionality and direction,” says Brearton.

The reports of a rumored acquisition may not be much of a surprise to industry insiders that have been following Marketo’s business trajectory. More than two years ago, Bloomberg reported the company had begun working with Morgan Stanley to explore the possibility of a buyout — at the time, speculation around the potential buyers included Adobe along with SAP and Microsoft.

Instead of being purchased by a bigger fish in the marketing technology world, Marketo was acquired by Vista Equity Partners for $1.8 billion.

In June, Adobe reported its second-quarter revenue at $2.2 billion, a 24 percent year-over-year increase in revenue growth. A month before, the company had purchased Magento Commerce for $1.68 billion. With its continued upswing in revenue and recent acquisition history, Adobe possibly purchasing Marketo would be a logical next step for the company as it looks to make a deeper dive into the marketing technology landscape.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.


New on MarTech

    Only 38% of marketers very confident in their customer data and analytics systems
    Does your email copy persuade or sell?
    The latest jobs in martech
    74% of B2B marketers expect budgets to increase next year
    How Cherry Bombe uses email to make customers smile

About The Author

Amy Gesenhues
Amy Gesenhues was a senior editor for Third Door Media, covering the latest news and updates for Marketing Land, Search Engine Land and MarTech Today. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including MarketingProfs, SoftwareCEO, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy's articles.

Related Topics

Customer & Digital ExperienceMarketing OperationsPerformance Marketing

Get the daily newsletter digital marketers rely on.

Processing...Please wait.

See terms.

ATTEND OUR EVENTS The MarTech Conference logo.

September 28-29, 2022: Fall

Start Training Now: Master Classes

Start Discovering Now: Spring



The SMX Conference logo.

Start Training Now:: SMX Advanced

November 14-15, 2022: SMX Next

March 8-9, 2022: Master Classes

Webinars

SEO Recon: The What, Why, and How for Building Amazing Links

Unlock the Cutting-Edge Potential of QR Codes

Why Finding the Right Platform is the Key to Winning in Email Marketing

See More Webinars
Intelligence Reports

Enterprise Marketing Performance Management Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Customer Journey Orchestration Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Account-Based Marketing Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

See More Intelligence Reports
Featured White Paper

The Definitive Buyer’s Guide to Collaborative Work Management for Marketers

See More Whitepapers
Search Our Site

Receive daily marketing news & analysis.

Processing...Please wait.

Topics

  • Transformation
  • Operations
  • Data
  • Experience
  • Performance
  • Management
  • All Topics
  • Home

Our Events

  • MarTech
  • Search Marketing Expo - SMX

About

  • What is MarTech
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Marketing Opportunities
  • Staff

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • RSS

© 2022 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.