Adobe buys Marketo for $4.75bn

Marketo has almost 5,000 customers and combining Adobe’s Experience Cloud and Marketo’s engagement platform will boost Adobe’s customer experience across both B2C and B2B.

It will bring together Adobe’s analytics, content, personalisation, advertising and commerce capabilities with Marketo’s marketing technology so B2B companies can create, manage and execute marketing engagement at scale.

Steve Lucas, CEO of Marketo, said: “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.”

The transaction is expected to close during the fourth quarter of Adobe’s 2018 fiscal year and is subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions. Until the deal is closed, each company will continue to operate independently.

Once finalised, Marketo CEO Steve Lucas will join Adobe’s senior leadership team and continue to lead the Marketo team as part of Adobe’s digital experience business, reporting to executive vice-president and general manager Brad Rencher.