Adobe to buy software provider Semrush in $1.9 billion deal

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Photoshop maker Adobe will acquire software platform Semrush in a $1.9 billion deal, the companies said on Wednesday.

Adobe will pay $12 per share for the company, representing a premium of around 77.5% to Semrush's closing price on Tuesday. Semrush shares jumped 55% in premarket trading.

Semrush designs and develops software that helps companies with search engine optimization, social media and digital advertising.

The potential acquisition would allow Adobe, which offers tools such as Photoshop, InDesign, Acrobat and Illustrator, to help marketers to better understand how their brands are viewed by online consumers.

Adobe has become a household name in design software, widely used by enterprises, students and creative professionals to edit, create websites, brochures and graphics.

But shares of the company have fallen more than 27% so far this year, as it faces investor pressure to ramp up monetization of its artificial intelligence products and features amid intensifying competition in the digital design industry.

Adobe had said in October its video and image editing tools could be controlled by chatting with them. It also said it was working with ChatGPT creator OpenAI to let users directly control one of its apps through the chatbot.