Adobe Systems Incorporated is the desktop publishing software company that developed Acrobat, Photoshop, Illustrator and PageMaker. Distributed free of charge, Adobe Acrobat Reader is a software application that is widely used to read portable document format (PDF) files on the Internet. Adobe's product offerings include a web development tool and electronic book publishing software. Adobe InDesign is a professional layout and design publishing tool. Adobe Systems provides implementation, training and support services through its Professional Services group.http://www.hoovers.com/company/Adobe_Systems_Incorporated/rthrxi-1.html

Adobe products are supported across different types of media, devices and operating systems. Adobe Systems products are distributed through a network of distributors, resellers, systems integrators, software vendors and computer hardware manufacturers, as well as through direct sales and the Internet. Adobe products are licensed to hardware makers, service providers and software developers. The company also offers integrated software solutions to businesses of various sizes. Since 2005, Adobe has owned Flash, the multimedia platform brand.http://www.crunchbase.com/company/adobe-systems

Adobe Systems was founded by John Warnock and Chuck Geschke in 1982. Their first goal was to get text and images on the computer screen to print properly. Adobe PostScript was born a year later. Since its inception, Adobe Systems has sought to take lead in developing solutions to common electronic publishing problems. Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator are products of this initiative in the field of image and video editing. When the wired world needed an industry standard for sharing documents electronically, Adobe developed PDF. Later, the company helped usher the era of dynamic webpages through Adobe Dreamweaver and Adobe Flash.

Today, Adobe Systems not only strives to provide the world with web conferencing and enterprise solutions for robust document management and security, but also to help companies integrate enterprise technologies and multimedia into solutions for business problems. In 2009, Adobe acquired Omniture, an online business optimization toolmaker. With this acquisition, Adobe Systems aimed to help customers better take care of their online assets.http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pdfs/profile.pdf

• 1982: Chuck Geschke and John Warnock found Adobe Systemshttp://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pdfs/profile.pdf
• 1990: Adobe Photoshop 1.0 is launchedhttp://www.storyphoto.com/multimedia/multimedia_photoshop.html
• 2005: Adobe Systems acquires Macromediahttp://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2005/04/67259
• 2008: PDF becomes ISO standardhttp://www.iso.org/iso/pressrelease.htm?refid=Ref1141
• 2009: Adobe acquires Omniturehttp://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pdfs/profile.pdf
• 2010: Adobe is recognized as one of the World's Ethical Companies by Ethisphere Institutehttp://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pdfs/profile.pdf