Adobe Inc. announced on Wednesday that it has reached an agreement to acquire the marketing software company Semrush Holdings Inc. for a total of $1.9 billion.
The transaction, structured as an all-cash deal, values Semrush at $12 per share.
Adobe stated in a statement that the acquisition is expected to be finalised during the first half of 2026.
Acquiring the company will help Adobe offer “a comprehensive solution that gives marketers a holistic understanding of how their brands appear across owned channels, LLMs, traditional search and the wider web,” the Photoshop maker said.
This announcement marks Adobe’s first proposed takeover since its unsuccessful $20 billion bid for Figma Inc., which fell apart in 2023. Adobe had previously walked away from the proposed Figma acquisition after encountering significant regulatory obstacles in both Europe and the UK. That deal would have been one of the largest takeovers of a private software maker in history.
Following the takeover news, Semrush shares soared by 75% to $11.83 in premarket trading, while Adobe’s stock saw only minor change. The Wall Street Journal had initially reported the deal earlier in the day.
AI Strategy
Semrush specialises in the design and development of AI-powered software that assists companies with search engine optimisation, social media management, and digital advertising campaigns.
While Adobe is perhaps best known for its tools used by creative professionals, such as Photoshop, the firm also offers an extensive suite of marketing and analytics products, known as the "Adobe Experience Cloud," which is an increasingly important source of revenue.
Despite this growth, Adobe’s stock has faced challenges this year amid concerns that rapid advancements in artificial intelligence could undermine the company’s core creative business model. The stock had lost roughly a quarter of its value this year.
In October, the company indicated its intention to embrace the AI trend, stating that its video and image editing tools would soon be controllable via simple chat commands. It also revealed it was collaborating with OpenAI to allow users to directly control one of its applications through ChatGPT.