Adobe

345 Park Avenue

San Jose, CA 95110-2704
Phone 408 536.6000
Fax 408 537.6000
To our stockholders:
In 2010, as the greater economy seemed to finally turn the corner towards recovery, Adobe delivered an outstanding
year, reporting record growth and strong performance across all our businesses.
The years highlights included the release of Creative Suite 5, Acrobat X, and the new Digital Publishing Suite. We also
delivered Adobe Flash Player 10.1, a landmark release that not only achieved the fastest adoption on PCs to date, but
also extended the Flash Player technology to a broader range of mobile phones, TVs, and devices than ever before.
The integration of our Omniture business has gone even better than planned, and we further expanded our technology
portfolio with the acquisition of Day Software in October.
The diversity of our operations and the breadth of our market opportunities continue to provide stability and catalyze
growth. Adobe is undergoing an exciting transformation from a predominantly desktop software company to a business
that delivers mission critical solutions to a very diverse set of customers.
Financial snapshot: Fiscal year 2010
Adobe achieved record revenue of $3.8 billion in fiscal 2010, compared to $2.9 billion in fiscal 2009. This represents
29% year-over-year revenue growth. In the fourth quarter, we delivered our first billion dollar quarter, representing 33%
year-over-year revenue growth.
Our two largest business units, Creative Solutions and Digital Enterprise Solutions, grew 21% and 18% year-over-year
respectively, generating $2.1 billion and $1.0 billion in revenue. We also drove strong revenue from our newly acquired
Omniture business during the year, and with record Omniture bookings in fiscal 2010, it is clear this acquisition was
transformative in making Adobe more mission critical to our customers.
We remained focused on maintaining a healthy balance sheet, finishing the fiscal year with approximately $2.5 billion
in cash and cash equivalents. We generated over $1.1 billion in cash flow during the year. We also repurchased over 31
million shares of common stock during the fiscal year, returning $910 million to Adobe stockholders.
The landscape ahead
Adobes continued success is predicated on our ability to forecast emerging trends and position ourselves favorably for
the future. As we look to the year ahead, there are three fundamental trends that stand out as drivers of opportunity for
our business.
The first is an explosion in the number and diversity of screens in the marketplace. The multiscreen revolution is
transforming both how content is consumed and the technical complexity of how that content is produced, particularly
for designers and developers. Its creating new business opportunities while simultaneously creating significant
workflow challenges. The multiscreen trend is one that no company can ignore and one that will fuel years of
innovation across all aspects of content creation, delivery, and optimization.
The second major trend we are witnessing is the increased relevance of data-driven marketing. Every business has or
will have an online presence, giving them unprecedented opportunities to track, collect, and analyze large quantities
of data about their content, advertisements, and audience. This data can be used to optimize not only messaging
and content, but to steer the direction of their entire business strategy. The ongoing cycle of tracking, analysis, and
optimization will be essential for every successful business. The massive volume of content and data involved, as well as
the challenge of rapid analysis, mean significant opportunities for Adobe.
The third shift we see is a marked transition in the enterprise space from investment in back-end infrastructure to a focus
on the experience of the customer and end-user. Customers are raising the bar of their expectations, demanding a better
user experience, mobile access, integration with social networks, and more. Customer acquisition and retention will
depend directly on the quality of experience an organization can provide, across a broad variety of digital touchpoints.
Simply put, customer experience management will make the difference between enterprises that succeed with their
customers and those that dont.
Fertile ground
Our extensive line of complementary products and solutions, combined with the macro trends above, present a
promising future. We are transforming how individuals, businesses, and governments create, manage, deliver, and
optimize the digital content they create for an increasingly multiscreen world. We are focused on three key spheres of
opportunity in the coming year:
Content authoring
As the quantity of digital content explodes, no other organization is better positioned to benefit from the revolution in
how digital content is created, managed, distributed, and monetized, or more prepared to take advantage of the spread
of content across every screen in a persons life. We continue to innovate both at the product level, to offer authoring
and workflows for multiformat and multiscreen content, and at the business level, to increase penetration and attract
new customers. We have plans for bold new solutions for media companies and digital publishing, as well as new ways
to take advantage of the expansion of digital imaging and video.
Online marketing
Adobe is poised to set the standard for how digital content and marketing is measured, executed, and optimized. We
will continue to build on our market leadership in web analytics with our Online Marketing Suite. Globally, expenditures
in the online advertising market are expected to exceed $109 billion by 2013*. We are making aggressive investments
to ensure our leadership in this space, and we believe the revenue opportunity is greater than $2 billion annually. In the
coming months, we plan to unveil new innovations that will provide advertisers and content publishers with even more
capability to convert collected data into sound business decisions.
Customer experience management
Customer experience management (CEM) will be a keystone differentiator for all businesses going forward. We will use
our deep experience in design, development, and user interface technologies, combined with our extensive knowledge
of the enterprise, to offer businesses comprehensive solutions for successfully engaging customers with powerful digital
experiences. We believe the addressable market here exceeds $4 billion, and we are uniquely positioned to be the
market leader in this emerging category. We are expanding our current solutions with the integration of web content
management tools from our acquisition of Day Software, and we will continue empowering our customers with new
innovations in experience design.
Being good neighbors
Our passion for driving technological innovation is matched by our commitment to fostering positive change in the
communities in which we work and live.
We are proud to be ranked as one of the top 50 most socially responsible companies in the United States. We are a
recognized leader in promoting environmental stewardship and maintaining a healthy work environment, with our
corporate headquarters having achieved many green building firsts. In 2010, Adobe was honored as one of the
Worlds Most Ethical Companies for its commitment to ethical leadership, compliance practices, and corporate
social responsibility.
Adobe focuses the majority of our philanthropic resources on Adobe Youth Voices, the signature initiative of the
Adobe Foundation. Adobe Youth Voices empowers youth in underserved communities around the globe with real-
world experiences and 21st-century tools to communicate their ideas, exhibit their potential, and take action in their
communities. The projects global network currently includes more than 500 sites, as well as grantees and organizations
in 32 countries, engaging more than 27,000 youth and 1,500 educators.
As we look to 2011, we believe industry trends and Adobes strengths are intersecting in a way that offers us unique
opportunities to capitalize on the future. Our large addressable markets, strong brand, world-class products, and
diversified business have positioned us for growth. Now we plan to execute, and continue changing the world through
digital experiences.
Sincerely,
Shantanu Narayen John E. Warnock Charles M. Geschke
President and Chief Executive Officer Chairman of the board Chairman of the board
*Worldwide and U.S. Internet Advertising 2010-2014 Forecast and Analysis, IDC, May 2010
Senior executive
officers
Shantanu Narayen
President and
Chief Executive Officer
Mark Garrett
Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer
Karen Cottle
Senior Vice President,
General Counsel and
Corporate Secretary
John Loiacono
Senior Vice President,
Digital Media Solutions
Business Unit
Kevin Lynch
Senior Vice President
and Chief Technology Officer
Rob Tarkoff
Senior Vice President,
Digital Enterprise Solutions
Business Unit
Matt Thompson
Senior Vice President,
Worldwide Field Operations
David Wadhwani
Senior Vice President,
Creative and Interactive
Solutions Business Unit
Board of directors
John E. Warnock
Chairman of the Board,
Adobe Systems Incorporated
Charles M. Geschke
Chairman of the Board,
Adobe Systems Incorporated
Shantanu Narayen
President and Chief
Executive Officer,
Adobe Systems Incorporated
Edward W. Barnholt
Retired Chairman,
President, and CEO,
Agilent Technologies Inc.
Robert K. Burgess
Former Executive Chairman,
Macromedia, Inc
Michael R. Cannon
Former President,
Global Operations, Dell Inc.
James E. Daley
Retired, Executive Vice
President, Electronic Data
Systems Corporation
Retired, Co-Chairman
Operations and Vice
Chairman-International,
Price Waterhouse LLP
Carol Mills
Independent Consultant
Dan Rosensweig
President and Chief
Executive Officer,
Chegg.com
Robert Sedgewick
Professor of Computer
Science, Princeton University
Risks and uncertainties
This document contains forward-looking statements,
including statements regarding product plans, product
future growth, and market opportunities, which involve
risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to
differ materially. Factors that might cause or contribute
to such differences include, but are not limited to, those
discussed in our SEC filings, including the 2010 Annual
Report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form
10-Q to be filed in 2011. When used in this document,
the words expects, anticipates, intends, plans,
believes, seeks, targets, estimates, and similar
expressions, as well as descriptions of our focus for the
future, are generally intended to identify forward-looking
statements. You should not place undue reliance on the
forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the
date of this document. We undertake no obligation to
publicly release any revisions to the forward-looking
statements that reflect events or circumstances after the
date of this document.
Investor relations
If you would like to receive additional financial
documents, such as prior annual reports, earnings
press releases, or Adobes SEC filings on Form 10-Q
or Form 10-K, you can request them without charge
by calling 408-536-4700 or sending an email to
[email protected]. Please include your contact
information with the request. You can obtain Adobe
financial calendar information such as earnings release
dates, listen to Adobe management conference calls,
view recent Adobe investor presentations, sign up to
automatically receive Adobe investor news via email,
and obtain other Adobe finance-related documents
online at www.adobe.com/ADBE.
Stock exchange listing
NASDAQ Global Select; Ticker symbol ADBE
To contact Adobes Investor
Relations department,
use the following information:
Investor Relations
Department
Adobe Systems Incorporated
345 Park Avenue
San Jose, CA 95110-2704
USA
Tel: 408-536-4416
[email protected]
To report a change of
address or lost stock
certificates, please notify
our Transfer Agent:
Shareholder
Communications
Computershare Investor
Services LLC
250 Royall Street
Canton, MA 02021 USA
Tel: 800-455-1130
Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat, Creative Suite, Flash, and Omniture are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or
other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
2011 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. 91048560 3/11