Adobe added its name today to the list of companies warning of weaker sales and are therefor cutting jobs.

“The global economic crisis significantly impacted our revenue during the fourth quarter,” said Shantanu Narayen, president and chief executive officer of Adobe. “We have taken action to reduce our operating costs and fine-tune the focus of our resources on key strategic priorities.”

Adobe cited weaker-than-expected demand for its new Creative Suite 4 family of products that began shipping in Q4 in North America and Europe as the main cause for the shortfall in fourth quarter revenue.

Adobe also announced the implementation of a restructuring program, and has taken steps to reduce its headcount by approximately 600 full-time positions globally.


Press release: Adobe Provides Preliminary Q4 Fiscal 2008 Results

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[Nutrox]

It is a shame that Adobe is feeling the pinch but it isn't surprising really. IMO the main cause of companies having to do this kind of thing are share holders, they aren't happy if a company simply makes a profit, they expect a company to increase profits each quarter above and beyond inflation. That is completely stupid and inevitably ends up in job loses when a product such as Creative Suite 4 doesn't do as well as expected, regardless of the economy. Greed once again raises it's ugly head.

As long as the Flash Player, Flash, Flex Builder and Photoshop don't suffer I will be happy though. The other products don't really interest me and aren't essential in my little coding world.

[sentinels]

not so sure i agree 100% with your assessment. there are a lot of other factors to take into account too, but i don't want to get into a whole economics conversation here. but at the core, greed is indeed the root of the problem as you say.

[koose]

somehow CS4 just seemed a bit quick to me. i'm all up for progress but i'm guessing even bigger companies don't want to spend out on updating at the moment.

[Holaso]

I agree.

[wok]

I’m sure it had nothing to do with CS4 offering very little in the way of useful new features - Flash especially.

[Nutrox]

Quote: Originally Posted by wok

I’m sure it had nothing to do with CS4 offering very little in the way of useful new features - Flash especially.

I have to agree about the lack of useful features in Flash CS4, the only new feature I find useful is the ability to use SWC class libraries compiled with Flex Builder, I can't think of any other CS4-specific feature I use and I really hate the GUI. The only new feature in Flash Player 10 I find useful is the ability to load/save local files, all of the pixel-bender and 3D stuff is pretty useless really when it comes to websites and both are painfully slow. The pixel-bender features might be handy in a Flash powered graphics application but nothing else I can think of.

I'm not sure why Adobe feel the need to push out new product versions every year, that is probably doing them (Adobe and the products) more harm than good.

[crecre]

It's sad that such famous companies treat their people in this way
I bet they will regret it when the crisis is over and they will have to find professional employees

[E-B]

Adobe is strong and the design community is strong, we just have to stay positive and keep working at it. We will make it through these tough times