Adobe announced on Thursday that it has acquired Marketo, the B2B marketing software vendor, for $4.75 billion.

The transaction is set to close in the fourth quarter of Adobe’s fiscal year, before which time the companies will continue to operate independently.

Forrester principal analyst Rusty Warner told Computer Business Review that the acquisition allows Adobe to participate in the B2B marketing automation market.

“Although Adobe does have B2B customers, it was definitely a company at the periphery of B2B marketing automation. In order to participate in the B2B marketing automation market, Adobe needed the functionality that Marketo brings.

Marketo CEO Steve Lucas will join Adobe’s senior leadership team and will lead the Marketo team as part of Adobe’s Digital Experience business, reporting to Adobe’s executive vice president and general manager Brad Rencher.

marketo“Personalised Cross-Channel Experiences”

Rencher said in a blog post that the deal will enable businesses to offer personalised cross-channel experiences, including, web, mobile, and in-store; acquire more customers through targeted, account-based advertising; improve campaign creation through access to a content asset repository; and use a data-driven approach to focus sales and marketing on the most valuable prospects.

“The combination of Marketo’s leading B2B marketing engagement solution with Adobe’s advertising, analytics, commerce and marketing clouds, puts Adobe squarely at the heart of all marketing,” said Rencher. Following the announcement, Lucas said in a post that the two companies “share an unwavering belief in the power of content and data to drive business.

“Make no mistake that Marketo remains deeply committed to investing in our platform to keep marketers ahead of the curve, a commitment and vision that Adobe shares,” he said. “I believe that Adobe will further accelerate Markto’s product roadmap and go-to-market execution, offering Marketo a new level of global operational scale.

“Together we will deliver an unrivalled solution that will place customer experience and engagement at the heart of digital transformation.”

San Mateo, CA-based Marketo has nearly 5,000 customers, an ecosystem of over 500 partners, and a marketing community with over 65,000 members.

Adobe said the acquisition, subject to regulatory approval, will enable it to offer an “unrivalled” set of solutions for customer experiences across industries and companies. Markto’s cloud-native platform will also have opportunities for integration across Adobe Experience Cloud, it added.

Marketo Brings ‘Marketing Cloud’ Street Cred

Forrester added: “Marketo was a very good choice. The company is on the short list in just about every B2B marketing automation platform selection. Now, [Adobe] is able to compete in the B2B marketing cloud business against Salesforce, Oracle, and SAP.”

“The acquisition helps accelerate Adobe’s ‘Marketing Cloud’ street cred because Marketo is a true SaaS offering.”

Marketo was acquired by Vista Equtiy Partners a little over two years ago. Adobe and Microsoft had both been considering the purchase at the time before Vista won it, CNBC reports.

After purchasing Marketo for $1.8 billion in cash, Vista has pulled in $2.95 billion in profit, Warner added.

Adobe had announced its acquisition of Magento, a platform for open commerce innovation, back in May.

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