Omniture buyout means big money for shareholders

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PROVO -- The buyout of a Utah-based company by a giant in the computer industry means a big payday for the company's shareholders.

Adobe--a key player web-based products--is offering $1.8 billion to buy Orem-based Omniture. The two companies believe that together they can optimize web surfers' experience, especially when they shop online.

Omniture isn't talking about the buyout because the company is in a "quiet period"--the two weeks before quarterly earnings are released. But it's a major deal and one that could really have a huge impact on the local economy.

![](http://media.bonnint.net/slc/1434/143446/14344635.jpg)

Omniture Inc., based in Orem, Utah, is a web analytic software company that specializes in Web traffic analysis to help companies improve their marketing over the Internet. Its services allow its customers to analyze information generated by their Web sites enabling them to gain insights into the performance and efficiency of its business processes. Omniture has more than 4,000 customers including Apple Inc., Time Warner Inc. and Walt Disney Co., eBay, AOL, Wal-Mart, Gannett, Microsoft, Neiman Marcus, Oracle, Countrywide Financial, General Motors, Sony and HP.

Even in a tough economy, Omniture has continued to advertise on billboards that it is hiring and looking for engineers. Now, multimedia giant Adobe sees so much value in Omniture that it is offering $4 more per share than what the company was trading for Tuesday-- a $600 million bonus for Omniture shareholders. In a story with CNBC last month, Omniture CEO Joshua James explained why his company has so much to offer companies in the e-commerce business.

"We help them understand who's coming to their websites, where they're coming from. We don't actually know personally that it's Julia that's been here, but we know a woman who lives in the Los Angeles area, and she's been here five times before," James explained.

Omniture provides the usage statistics to companies--many of them big household names--so they can understand and anticipate a web visitor's interest in their site.

**What is Adobe Systems Inc.?**![](http://media.bonnint.net/slc/1434/143450/14345022.jpg)

Adobe Systems Inc. creates multimedia and creativity software like Flash Player (video), Acrobat Reader (documents) and Photoshop (images). It was founded in 1982 and is based in San Jose, California.

"So, they used our products and services to be able to offer a targeted experience to those people that had already signed up and had fun with the account. And they increased their revenues by $1 million per month," James said of one of his clients. Omniture and its 600 employees in Orem are expected to stay in Utah County and will answer to Adobe's headquarters in the Silicon Valley. It's likely that the company will keep growing and provide more job opportunities here.

Some Omniture employees, however, are wondering about their long-term future, since many Utah County startups have been bought then moved away to the new corporate headquarters out of state.

The Adobe and Omniture deal is expected to be finalized before the end year.

E-mail: spenrod@ksl.com