Peter Kafka

Recent Posts by Peter Kafka

Adobe Makes Another Ad Move, Buys Search Marketer Efficient Frontier

Do you have an advertising business you’d like to sell? Adobe would like to talk to you.

The digital publishing company just announced yet another advertising acquisition: It has picked up Efficient Frontier, the company that’s best known for its search marketing business, but which is trying to expand into other ad buying/consulting fields, like social.

Adobe didn’t disclose a purchase price, but this one sounds like it will be material. The $4 billion-plus (revenue) company said it would provide “additional information regarding the potential financial impact to Adobe” once the deal closes, most likely in the first quarter of next year.

This is the fourth advertising acquisition Adobe has made in the past few years, following its purchases of Omniture, Demdex and, most recently, Auditude.

Earlier this year, Efficient Frontier picked up social marketing start-up Context Optional for $50 million. The move was supposed to help it branch out beyond its core business — helping marketers navigate Google and other search engines.

(Image courtesy of Shutterstock/iadams)

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There’s a lot of attention and PR around Marissa, but their product lineup just kind of blows.

— Om Malik on Bloomberg TV, talking about Yahoo, the September issue of Vogue Magazine, and our overdependence on Google