Adobe signs $4.75bn deal for B2B specialist Marketo

Adobe is ratcheting up its quest for a major slice of data-driven marketing budgets with the acquisition of Marketo for $4.75bn (£3.5bn) from private equity firm Vista Equity Partners Management.
Marketo was launched in 2006 by three former Epiphany executives as an email marketing company specialising in the business-to-business market; since then it has added a raft of platforms and services – including customer engagement, content marketing and analytics – and now has nearly 5,000 customers. It was bought by Vista for $1.8bn in 2016.
Adding Marketo’s engagement platform to Adobe Experience Cloud will enable Adobe to offer an enhanced set of solutions to businesses of all sizes, the companies claim.
The deal is the latest in Adobe’s expansion plans – including the acquisition of e-commerce platform Magento Commerce for $1.68 billion in May – as it takes on the might of Microsoft, Oracle and Salesforce.
Brad Rencher, executive vice president and general manager of digital experience at Adobe, said: “The imperative for marketers across all industries is a laser focus on providing relevant, personalised and engaging experiences. The acquisition of Marketo widens Adobe’s lead in customer experience across B2C and B2B and puts Adobe Experience Cloud at the heart of all marketing.”
Marketo chief executive Steve Lucas added: “Adobe and Marketo both share an unwavering belief in the power of content and data to drive business results. Marketo delivers the leading B2B marketing engagement platform for the modern marketer, and there is no better home for Marketo to continue to rapidly innovate than Adobe.”