Fotolia clicked by Adobe at $800 mn

CALIFORNIA, USA: Adobe has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Fotolia, a marketplace for royalty-free photos, images, graphics and HD video, for approximately $800 million in cash.

Fotolia will be integrated into Adobe Creative Cloud, providing current and future Creative Cloud members with the ability to access and purchase over 34 million images and videos, significantly simplifying and accelerating the design process, an announcement explained.

The acquisition of Fotolia cements Creative Cloud’s role as a vibrant marketplace for creatives to buy and sell assets and services as well as showcase their talent to a worldwide audience, adds Adobe saying it also plans to continue to operate Fotolia as a standalone stock service, accessible to anyone.

“The acquisition of Fotolia will reinforce Creative Cloud’s role as the preeminent destination for creatives,” said David Wadhwani, senior vice president, Digital Media, Adobe. “Creative Cloud is becoming the go-to marketplace for the creative community to access images, videos, fonts and creative talent, through critical creative services like Fotolia and our new Creative Talent Search capabilities.”

Following the completion of the acquisition, Adobe expects to integrate the delivery and purchase of stock assets into Creative Cloud.

“Becoming part of the Adobe family is a dream come true for the Fotolia team and will accelerate our vision to become the best place for artists to build a business and the ultimate destination for designers to find stunning creative work,” said Oleg Tscheltzoff, founder and CEO of Fotolia.

Founded in 2004, with offices in New York, Paris and Berlin, privately-held Fotolia is owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P., TA Associates and management. Fotolia currently operates in 23 countries and has websites in 14 languages.

The transaction, which is expected to close in the second half of Adobe’s fiscal Q1 2015, is subject to certain regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. The potential financial impact to Adobe of this transaction is not reflected in financial targets Adobe has previously provided, or new targets disclosed as part of Adobe's financial results, released on December 11, 2014.

Until the transaction closes, each company will continue to operate independently. Upon close Fotolia CEO, Oleg Tscheltzoff, will continue to lead the Fotolia team as part of Adobe’s Digital Media business.