Adobe’s Acquisition of Day Software

There has been exciting news rippling through cyberspace today.   Adobe Systems has signed a definitive agreement to launch a public tender offer to acquire Day Software.  I would like to send out a big congratulations to our friends at Day Software. Having been a professional implementation partner of Day since 2006, we have seen the product evolve from CQ3.x to CQ4.x and then to their flagship version, CQ5.

Great product innovation and marketing has fueled the growth of Day over the past 2 years and I would presume is what put Day on Adobe's radar. Day has executed well on both "ends" of the CQ5 product, (1) great technical platform for developing large-scale WCM applications and (2) user friendly authoring interface that sells well to end users (i.e. marketing).

Here's my initial opinion on how I think those entities involved will benefit from the acquisition:

Good for Adobe

1. They get a top notch CMS. It was always an interesting fact that Adobe did not have a CMS product, even more after they acquired Omniture.  Now they will and I think it fills a major void in Adobe's offerings.
2. Day has been quite vocal about running CQ5 in "the cloud" (i.e. Amazon EC2).  They get a WCM cloud story out of the box which seems to be something everyone needs these days.
3. There can be a potential for good synergy with Adobe's CSx design tools. Thinking forward...perhaps an export directly from Photoshop or InDesign to CQ5 for the start of a CQ5 template/component?
4. As referenced above, Day has done a great job satisfying both the technical stakeholder (i.e. corporate IT) and marketing stakeholders. I am not sure if Adobe has gotten too cozy with corporate IT, but perhaps this will help forge the relationship.
5. Adobe will get its feet wet with a real commitment to open source as Day has been the steward of many open source projects (i.e. Apache Jackrabbit, Apache Felix, Apache Sling, etc.).

Good for Day

1. Under Adobe, Day will be US based which I believe will help with US customers. Additionally, Day will benefit from Adobe's worldwide presense.
2. Access to just about every design agency in the world since Adobe owns them with their desktop tools. This is pretty huge especially if there ends up being some sort of integration between the design tools and CQ.
3. Access to Adobe's customer list. Day's CQ product sells well to marketing folks (the end user). Marketing folks know Adobe well, either because they are using their design tools already or because they have seen slick Adobe UIs in action.
4. Additional budget for R&D and product feature development. Let's hope this is the case and Adobe invests in the Day products at the same rate as Day themselves funded their R&D.
5. Additional budget for marketing which will continue to drive awareness and adoption of the CQ product family.

Good for Day's Customers

1. Day customers should see additional innovation and may be more apt to investing more in their CQ installation knowing that a $4B+ organization is behind the product.
2. Possible integration with other Adobe products including Omniture, Flex, etc.
3. More resources (budget, process, people, partners) to support their installations from a product support perspective.

Good for Day's Ecosystem

1. The partner channel should see more opportunity with Day's technology falling under a large scale name such as Adobe. The initial conversation won't have to be "Who is Day Software?" when talking to prospects.
2. The open source projects that Day Software has contributed to over the years should see an uptick in innovation by just being part of what we believe will be an elevated CQ R&D budget.

The common theme among most of the points above is that Adobe's ability to fund more R&D and feature development of the Day products will no doubt benefit just about everyone in Day's current ecosystem.

Are there any bad points? At first glance: no, but as with any M&A activity especially when a large organization purchases a smaller, spirited and innovative organization, the truth will be told a couple years out as to whether Adobe will embrace Day's hunger to innovate and push the limits on web content management. I have a positive outlook as I believe Day's passion for WCM will transcend any large organization buearcracy.

Hope to see everyone at Ignite 2010 in Chicago this coming October!There has been exciting news rippling through cyberspace today. Adobe Systems has signed a definitive agreement to launch a public tender offer to acquire Day Software. I would like to send out a big congratulations to our friends at Day Software. Having been a professional implementation partner of Day since 2006, we have seen the product evolve from CQ3.x to CQ4.x and then to their flagship version, CQ5.