The company Adobe, and its products and services, have come under both scrutiny and criticism in recent years.
In 2024, Adobe faced a major backlash after updating its Terms of Service. At the time, a number of members in the creative community believed the wording gave Adobe broad rights to access user content and potentially use it to train AI models such as Firefly. Adobe later clarified that it does not train AI on customer content and updated the terms to make this explicit, but the controversy damaged trust among many users.
Additionally, it has been reported in the press and on social media that customers disliked Adobe’s shift from perpetual licences to Creative Cloud subscriptions. The nature of the complaints often focused on rising subscription costs, paying monthly for software the customer perceived to be previously owned outright, and feeling locked into the Adobe ecosystem.
Adobe has faced regulatory scrutiny over cancellation policies and early termination fees. Critics argue that customers were not always made fully aware of cancellation charges when signing up for annual plans billed monthly.
Industry-Leading Products
The biggest issue is not necessarily Adobe’s technology itself. Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro and Acrobat remain industry-leading products. The criticism has largely been about trust, specifically concerns around ownership of creative work, use of customer data, AI policies, and customer choice.
Adobe has since clarified many of the AI-related concerns, but the 2024 Terms of Service controversy exposed how sensitive creative professionals are about data ownership and generative AI.
ARR triples year over year and exceeds $500 million
Recently, Adobe reported financial results for its second quarter FY2026 ended 29 May 2026.
Adobe achieved record revenue of $6.62 billion in its second quarter of FY2026, which represents 13% year-over-year growth, or 11% in constant currency.
Shantanu Narayen, chair and CEO at Adobe commented at the time:
“Adobe delivered record revenue of $6.62 billion in Q2 reflecting strong AI-driven demand across our customer groups and we are raising our full-year fiscal 2026 revenue and non-GAAP EPS targets on the strength of that performance. We are inspired to bring the magic of our new AI products to consumers, business professionals, creators, and marketers to deliver on our mission to Empower Everyone to Create.”
Total Adobe Annualised Recurring Revenue (ARR) exiting the quarter was $27.10 billion, including approximately $480 million from Semrush. Adobe repurchased approximately 8.5 million shares during the quarter.
Second Quarter FY2026 Customer Group Highlights
Total Customer Group subscription revenue was $6.39 billion, which represents 14% year-over-year growth, or 12% in constant currency, including approximately $40 million from Semrush.
Business Professionals & Consumers subscription revenue was $1.85 billion, which represents 16% year-over-year growth, or 15% in constant currency.
Creative & Marketing Professionals subscription revenue was $4.54 billion, which represents 13% year-over-year growth, or 11% in constant currency.
Adobe Personnel Changes
Dan Durn, executive vice president and CFO of Adobe, departed the company on 15 June 2026 to pursue a new professional opportunity.
Steven Day, SVP of Corporate Finance and CFO of Adobe’s Customer Experience Orchestration Business Unit, will serve as interim Chief Financial Officer, effective from 15 June 2026. Mr. Day brings 20 years of financial leadership experience at Adobe to the Interim Chief Financial Officer role. Day will report directly to CEO and Chair Shantanu Narayen.
“I want to thank Dan for leading the finance organization that will support Adobe’s next chapter of growth in the AI era, and wish him all the best,” said Narayen. “Steve has been a key member of our finance organization for two decades, and his deep understanding of Adobe’s business will be critical as we execute our strategy to deliver AI innovations to a broader set of customers across creativity, productivity and customer experience orchestration.”
This article could be perceived to contain forward-looking statements, and caution should be exercised when relying on such information that may or may not indicate future company performance.
