Adobe is coming under pressure on the stock market despite record numbers. Another departure from top management is causing uncertainty among investors given the challenges facing the industry. As Adobe announced on Thursday after the stock market closed, CFO Dan Durn will be leaving the company next week.
Read more after the ad
Durn is moving to chip designer Marvell Technology as head of finance. Steve Day will temporarily replace him as Adobe’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), who already filled this role for the Customer Experience Orchestration (CXO) division. CEO Shantanu Narayen thanked Durn for his good work and highlighted Day’s many years of experience in the company. Narayen himself announced in March that he would give up the CEO post as soon as a successor was found.
Adobe CXO develops AI-powered solutions for enterprise customer management. Which could be of great importance for Adobe in the future – the demand from companies for services of this type, including from smaller providers, is seen as a major future market. Adobe’s billion-dollar takeover of the AI specialist Semrush is also likely to play a role in this area. Adobe wants to expand its business with AI-supported marketing programs.
Adobe announced Durn’s departure on Thursday along with its business figures for the second quarter of 2026. This gave Adobe record sales of $6.62 billion, which corresponds to an increase of 13 percent compared to the same quarter last year (adjusted for inflation, it is 11 percent). CEO Narayen attributed the results to “strongly AI-driven demand across all customer segments.”
As evidence, Adobe cites a sharp increase in Annualized Recurring Revenue (ARR) for AI products, which at $500 million is around three times as high as in the same quarter of the previous year. Saas companies in particular like to use the ARR to predict their annual sales; the key figure is calculated from expected recurring income, for example from software subscriptions sold.
Adobe raises annual forecast
Adobe is also increasing its forecast for the current fiscal year. The company now expects annual sales of $26.5 billion to $26.6 billion – instead of $25.9 billion to $26.1 billion as at the end of 2025. The new forecast also includes the takeover of the AI specialist Semrush, which should be completed in the coming weeks. With the billion-dollar acquisition, Adobe is expanding its business with AI-supported marketing programs.
Read more after the ad
Meanwhile, Adobe shares are once again posting massive price losses. It was around five percent on Thursday and 7.72 percent on Friday afternoon (as of June 12, 4:26 p.m.). Although the numbers meet Wall Street’s expectations, they cannot hide the general challenges facing the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) industry.
The company enjoyed great financial success with the SaaS model, but artificial intelligence and the associated automation present it with an uncertain future and Adobe with important strategic decisions. The SaaS industry is designed for licenses per user – but if users increasingly let AI agents like ChatGPT or Copilot do the work in the future, this business model will shake. “AI eats software” is the tenor on Wall Street; it has already punished the industry’s major players with massive price drops; Adobe alone lost 37 percent this year.
AI eats software
Narayen’s not yet chosen successor must find the answer to this. Narayen is the man who led Adobe into the SaaS era. For several years now, licenses for Photoshop and Co. can no longer be purchased once and permanently, but only as a subscription. Narayen himself wants to take over his position until a successor is found and then remain on the Adobe board.
The company may be in desperate need of new vision given the trends in the SaaS market. Adobe can show some growth in the AI area with its good ARR development. But nearly all of its revenue — $6.39 billion this quarter out of $6.62 billion total — depends on the SaaS market. And players like Canva and Figma are also increasingly relying on AI products and are massive competition for Adobe.
Observers expect that the new Adobe CEO will also fill all or many board positions. Accordingly, Durn could not be the last to leave if other current Adobe board members look for new temporary jobs.
(nen)
