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OREM -- We got more details Thursday about how a nearly $2 billion sale of Omniture will affect the local economy and jobs.
When word of the sale got out, the biggest question Omniture employees and community leaders had is this: Will the company eventually pack up and move to the Silicon Valley? On Thursday, Omniture's CEO tried to emphasize Utah is what Adobe likes about Omniture.
"We didn't sell because anything was broken, we are selling because we feel like this accelerates our opportunities in the marketplace," said Josh James, CEO and co-founder of Omniture. "We can accomplish our goals more quickly, and we will be an independent business unit inside Adobe. And the great thing about Utah is that it is lower cost, so when you look at Adobe's worldwide business there's an opportunity for them that they are very excited about it."
Omniture has had revenues of about $350 million a year, but the company has a goal of reaching $1 billion in revenue.
Omniture sees itself as bringing what it does well to compliment Adobe and believes it means more jobs, and jobs that will continue to grow at its headquarters in Orem.
"If you look at a year from now, we are going to have more employees than less. We will see how it all plays out, but that's certainly the intention, and that was a very important component of the conversations," James said. "I take responsibility for these people, and they know I take that responsibility seriously. So, we are really excited about this opportunity."
The CEO of Adobe came to visit Omniture's Orem campus Thursday to meet with the 600 employees there.
Omniture shares will be sold for cash, $1.8 billion in all, and the price is $4 per share more than what the stock was selling for when the sale was announced on Tuesday afternoon.
The deal will take a couple of months to finalize, but Omniture is expected to become part of Adobe sometime in November.
E-mail: spenrod@ksl.com
