Adobe Finishes 4Q with Record Revenues

The Company’s Digital Media and Digital Experience Segments Hit All-Time Revenue Highs

Adobe reported record revenues for its 4Q period ending December 3, with the company’s Digital Media segment hitting the $3 billion mark for the first time alongside Adobe’s first-ever $1 billion quarter for its Digital Experience segment.

Revenue in 4Q for Adobe’s Digital Media reached $3.01 billion, up 21% from the same quarter a year ago, with revenue for the Creative Cloud subsegment up 19% to $2.48 billion, and revenue for the Document Cloud subsegment up 29% to $532 million. Meanwhile, Digital Experience 4Q revenue amounted to $1.01 billion, representing year-over-year (YoY) growth of 23%.

Both the Digital Media and Digital Experience segments are complementary revenue streams for San Jose, California-based Adobe. Digital Media consists of Creative Cloud and Document Cloud, the first being a collection of more than 20 desktop software, mobile applications, tools, and programs, including Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects, and Lightroom; and the second being a set of online tools and solutions for creating and managing digital documents, including Acrobat, Sign, and Scan. Digital Experience, for its part, is a collection of applications and services, as well as a cross-channel marketing optimization tool for analytics, campaign management, content delivery, and commerce, with products such as Workfront, Experience Manager, and Customer Journey Analytics.

Overall, Adobe’s 4Q revenue increased 20% to reach a best-ever quarterly take of $4.11 billion, and cash flow from operations reached an all-time high of $2.50 billion.

The company’s record performance in 4Q also resulted in fiscal 2021 revenue exceeding $15 billion, said Shantanu Narayen, chairman and CEO of Adobe. “Adobe’s vision, category leadership, ground-breaking technology, and large and loyal customer base position us well for fiscal 2022 and beyond,” he added.

Other notable 4Q developments for Adobe, the company noted in a prepared statement, included the completed acquisition of Frame.io, a cloud-based video collaboration company; as well as the acquisition of a new property, ContentCal, which offers capabilities for social media planning and publishing. Adobe also unveiled advances to facilitate collaboration on the web for programs such as Illustrator and Photoshop, launched new capabilities in Workfront to scale personalized content, extended its partnerships with IBM and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on intelligent document transformation, and joined forces with Disney to promote digital literacy for college-level students.

Author Information

Alex is responsible for writing about trends and changes that are impacting the customer experience market. He had served as Principal Editor at Village Intelligence, a Los Angeles-based consultancy on technology impacting healthcare and healthcare-related industries. Alex was also Associate Director for Content Management at Omdia and Informa Tech, where he produced white papers, executive summaries, market insights, blogs, and other key content assets. His areas of coverage spanned the sectors grouped under the technology vertical, including semiconductors, smart technologies, enterprise & IT, media, displays, mobile, power, healthcare, China research, industrial and IoT, automotive, and transformative technologies.

At IHS Markit, he was Managing Editor of the company’s flagship IHS Quarterly, covering aerospace & defense, economics & country risk, chemicals, oil & gas, and other IHS verticals. He was Principal Editor of analyst output at iSuppli Corp. and Managing Editor of Market Watch, a fortnightly newsletter highlighting significant analyst report findings for pitching to the media. He started his career in writing as an Editor-Reporter for The Associated Press.

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