Is Adobe Likely to Gain from its Buyout of Mettle's SkyBox?

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Adobe Systems Incorporated (ADBE - Free Report) and Mettle have been partners since 2010 and Adobe’s acquisition of Mettle’s SkyBox suite appears to be a move to further strengthen their ties.

The two companies separately announced the acquisition on Jun 21 but didn’t disclose the financial details. As part of it, Mettle co-founder Chris Bobotics will join Adobe as director of professional video. Mettle will continue as a standalone company, led by another co-founder Nancy Eperjesy.

The SkyBox suite includes workflow tools for virtual reality (VR) applications and 360-degree videos. Adobe has been using SkyBox plug-ins for post-production in Adobe Premiere Pro CC and Adobe After Effects CC. This technology is also used by companies like Alphabet’s (GOOGL - Free Report) Google, Facebook , Apple (AAPL - Free Report) , CNN, HBO and New York Times.

Adobe to Strengthen its Creative Cloud Offering

Adobe said that the new functionality will be incorporated exclusively with Premiere Pro and After Effects later this year. The company has been strengthening its Creative Cloud’s VR and VR apps portfolio in recent months and Mettle’s specialized plug-ins should ramp up the process.

Digital Media Segment Poised to Benefit

We expect the move to boost Adobe’s Digital Media segment since Creative Cloud is the segment’s flagship offering.  The segment did well in the second-quarter of fiscal 2017, surging 29% year over year to $1.21 billion.

Total Digital Media annualized recurring revenue (ARR) increased to $4.56 billion at the end of the quarter, reflecting an increase of $312 million and indicating strong growth in the Creative Cloud and Document Cloud businesses. Creative revenues touched $1.01 billion in the quarter, up 34% year over year. Creative ARR increased $285 million to $4.04 billion. (Read more: Adobe Beats Earnings and Revenue Estimates in Q2)

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