Adobe CEO to Step Down After 18 Years

Shantanu Narayen announced he will step down as CEO of Adobe once a successor is appointed, ending an 18-year tenure during which he transformed the company from boxed software to the Creative Cloud subscription model. Narayen said he will remain board chair as Adobe continues pushing into generative AI products. CNBC reports: Narayen joined Adobe in 1988 as a vice president and general manager, and he became CEO in 2007. Under Narayen, Adobe pushed from software licenses to subscriptions to its Creative Cloud application bundle, and the company is now working to expand through generative artificial intelligence. He sought to acquire fast-growing design software company Figma, but regulators pushed back, and the companies called off the deal, resulting in Adobe paying Figma a $1 billion breakup fee. [...]

Narayen, 62, is lead independent director of Pfizer in addition to his responsibilities at Adobe, where he received $51 million in total compensation for the 2025 fiscal year, according to a filing. He owns $118 million in Adobe shares, according to FactSet. [...] On Narayen's watch, Adobe's stock jumped more than sixfold, while the S&P 500 is up about 350% over that stretch. "What attracted me to Adobe 28 years ago was our leadership in creating new market categories, world-class products, a relentless desire to innovate in every functional area of the company and the people I met during the interview process," Narayen wrote. "We have continued to create new markets, deliver world-class products, drive innovation in everything we do and attract and retain the best and brightest employees."

over-priced hot garbage

[Anonymous Coward]

Good riddance!

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[jhoegl]

You expect different with someone new? Its obviously working, low effort, high price, and its paying off.

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[samwichse]

May his yacht be eaten by orcas as he tries to sail off into the sunset.

I still run CS2

[Anonymous Coward]

And see no reason to upgrade.

Phtotoshop feature complete

[will4]

When do we collectively ask these software vendors, SaaS, etc. what actual usable and widely used features have been introduced in the last 3 years?

Changing fonts, colors, button styles, animations and reskinning is not a compelling feature.

Changing how one minor feature formats text, colors an image, etc. is a micro-feature.

Adding connectivity to a pay by use cloud or AI service is not a compelling feature. The "Subscription within a Subscription" model is a poor selling point.

Now, excluding the first two not major features and the third, add at extra cost subscription, what new useful in every day features have been added in the last 3 years?

If little or none, why pay per-month licensing?

AI attention is doing one positive thing, forcing companies whose business model is based on an actuarial table type expected lifetime revenue per customer to change. That change being not to compete with itself, but to compete with other classes of products for IT budget.

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[jaa101]

Software does require on-going effort to remain in the market, even if no new features are added: security vulnerabilities come to light; bugs are fixed; support for new or updated operating systems and other software and hardware is added; etc. In fact I'd prefer that developers spent more time fixing existing issues rather than adding new features because, inevitably, adding new features adds new bugs, often faster than they can fix the old ones. It sounds great to say software shouldn't have any vulter

Re: Phtotoshop feature complete

[AvitarX]

I can't speak to the last 3 years since I've been out of the industry.

But when I was adobe was adding fancier brushes (inspired by krita I think) that modeled ink/paint flow to Photoshop and the features for vectorizing images were dramatically changing (for the better) between version in illistrator.

I can't recall specifically InDesign inprovements and Acrobat was mostly interactive elements that I found super annoying.

All and all I'd say each version offered some decent improvements.

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[Ol Olsoc]

I can't speak to the last 3 years since I've been out of the industry.

But when I was adobe was adding fancier brushes (inspired by krita I think) that modeled ink/paint flow to Photoshop and the features for vectorizing images were dramatically changing (for the better) between version in illistrator.

I can't recall specifically InDesign inprovements and Acrobat was mostly interactive elements that I found super annoying.

All and all I'd say each version offered some decent improvements.

I've used Photoshop since it was just Photoshop.

And yes, I'm annoyed AF at the Adobe Subscription model. So why do I still use the Suite?

It is good software. I make use of the many programs in the suite . I use them every day. Be it Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Animate, After Effects, Premiere, and others on a lesser basis. They integrate well with each other. And for the people who think that all Adobe does is add fonts to programs, it is obvious they don't use the suite.

The suite is a prof

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[argStyopa]

Let's be clear, it's not just software vendors.
Ever wonder about the umpteen thousand iterations of post it notes? Different sizes, different packs etc all counted toward a 3m internal requirement of "new products" for years.
Now they have whole teams of people who spend days debating which tone of "sage" is better for this year's zeitgeist.

The smart move is to AI

[Frank Burly]

Most CEOs add very little value over a replacement CEO. And as part of this equation, most boards overestimate their ability to pick a candidate who will delivery value over replacement and they wildly overpay in their attempt. They would be better off paying some amible middle manager just 10 times the average programmer's salary to network and sift though the proposals generated by AI.

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[backslashdot]

The system goes online August 4th, 1997. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th..

Hotel California

[GJB68]

Do you think the board will make it as hard for the CEO to leave as it is for customers to leave Adobe products? In the end I just cancelled my card....

Re: Hotel California

[Mr. Dollar Ton]

Yes,you can be sure they'll give him a golden parachute, which weight would sink any medium-sized ship.

Tombstone fees

[irving47]

I hope his family is billed $10million/year for the headstone. And if he comes back as a zombie, not needing it anymore, he gets charged another $20 million.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Better pay for the font used on the headstone too!

It explains so much!

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Normally you just sort of ignore the collection of random side jobs that, of course, C-levels can work at the same time without being accused of double-dipping; but it just explains so much that that Adobe has overlap with a major source of healthcare costs.

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[sound+vision]

I was wondering why my mind kept wandering to Mario's brother as I read this, now it clicked.

In With The New

[epicbread]

Hopefully the next CEO will will realize how morally suicidal it was to force Adobe users into a subscription model, regardless of whether it is profitable, and will restore Adobe's honor and rely on (a) buy one license, keep one license without renewal, and (b) completely separate all AI with a killswitch option for people who refuse to participate in that, while removing the forced AI training inclusion language to the terms. Both of those things absolutely trashed Adobe's reputation as a reliable company, demonstrating it opted for evil profits instead of honorable profits. I absolutely will not ever use any Adobe products with those practices in place; it is moral forfeiture in the name of progress and profit.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, you must be very mentally ill. Have you considered therapy?

Re: In With The New

[umopapisdn69]

Would you like to buy a bridge?

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[Ol Olsoc]

Hopefully the next CEO will will realize how morally suicidal it was to force Adobe users into a subscription model, regardless of whether it is profitable, and will restore Adobe's honor and rely on (a) buy one license, keep one license without renewal, and (b) completely separate all AI with a killswitch option for people who refuse to participate in that, while removing the forced AI training inclusion language to the terms. Both of those things absolutely trashed Adobe's reputation as a reliable company, demonstrating it opted for evil profits instead of honorable profits. I absolutely will not ever use any Adobe products with those practices in place; it is moral forfeiture in the name of progress and profit.

Here is the issue. It is pretty easy to highroad Adobe - Do you use it?

Make no mistake, I find the monthly cost an annoyance. But what is your plan for the 50 suite programs I use? Some I use daily, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Acrobat Pro, Camera Raw, Premiere, Adobe Fonts, Media Encoder. Others as needed.

If you don't need them, don't use them, get Gimp.

Re:

[nightflameauto]

Hopefully the next CEO will will realize how morally suicidal it was to force Adobe users into a subscription model, regardless of whether it is profitable, and will restore Adobe's honor and rely on (a) buy one license, keep one license without renewal, and (b) completely separate all AI with a killswitch option for people who refuse to participate in that, while removing the forced AI training inclusion language to the terms. Both of those things absolutely trashed Adobe's reputation as a reliable company, demonstrating it opted for evil profits instead of honorable profits. I absolutely will not ever use any Adobe products with those practices in place; it is moral forfeiture in the name of progress and profit.

Everything you're talking about isn't Adobe specific. It's tech-wide at this point, and the pool they'll pull the next CEO from will have been trained into the mentality that forever payments are the only way forward, and AI *MUST* be crammed into everything. There's no escape from that particular mentality, as it's currently seen as a good thing from the business side, and within Wall Street. Evil is profitable. Especially when you have a near monopoly grip on a certain segment of the market.

Oh by there's.

Yeah, "good run"

[Tarlus]

His tenure has overseen a high percentage of my headaches and profanity laden curses and rants directed at Adobe during my years as a sysadmin.

Translation

[jenningsthecat]

Shantanu Narayen announced he will step down as CEO of Adobe once a successor is appointed, ending an 18-year tenure during which he transformed the company from boxed software to the Creative Cloud subscription model. Narayen said he will remain board chair as Adobe continues pushing into generative AI products.

Darth Narayen announced he will step down as Chief Evil Officer of Adobe once a successor is turned to the Dark Side, ending an 18-year tenure during which he transmogrified the company from a seller of licensed software to a purveyor of "all your shit are belong to us" rent-our-software-at-inflated-prices-or-work-in-a-different-sector model. Narayen said he will help Adobe maintain its commitment to the Dark Side as it continues pushing generative AI on people who effectively have little or no choice.

FTFY

Re: Translation

[umopapisdn69]

ending an 18-year tenure during which he

. . . continuously enshittified the few remaining excellent products the company ever had.

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[jenningsthecat]

Thanks for the insightful edit - I'll incorporate it when I publish my comment. Oh, wait... ;-)

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[backslashdot]

Your lack of closing the quote is fucking with my brain.

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[backslashdot]

Nevermind.

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[jenningsthecat]

And now I'm hearing a "whoosh and have no idea what just went over my head... ;-)

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[Ol Olsoc]

Darth Narayen announced he will step down as Chief Evil Officer of Adobe once a successor is turned to the Dark Side, ending an 18-year tenure during which he transmogrified the company from a seller of licensed software to a purveyor of "all your shit are belong to us" rent-our-software-at-inflated-prices-or-work-in-a-different-sector model. Narayen said he will help Adobe maintain its commitment to the Dark Side as it continues pushing generative AI on people who effectively have little or no choice.

FTFY

As a user of the suite, I don't use the AI or the cloud. Are you a user, or just caught up in the memes about the Suite?

PDF, Flash, death should follow

[greytree]

Like the guy who put lead in petrol and the atmosphere and CFCs in fridges and the atmosphere, then died due to his own bed pulley system, Adobe fucked up the internet and documents with the ridiculous Rube Goldberg PDF format and ruined the internet with the horrible Flash, it is time Adobe died due to its software on subscription system.

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[Uldis Segliņš]

It is perplexing how PDF appears to be innocent, always working and universal but in reality has so large dark side. Nobody, including Adobe itself produces spec clean files. Faulty data? Lets just show something and leave it silent, so our competition to the web looks pristine. Lets also expand our features to include ridiculous amount of unnecessary junk so nobody will try to recreate that completely in their implementations and our competition to the web looks nonexistent.

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[drinkypoo]

The Acrobat application is very bad in general. Crashes, slowdowns, items disappearing during scrolling and not reappearing until selected or clicked, features like highlighting spontaneously ceasing to work until a restart or even reboot.

Good riddance...the story of Lightroom

[Somervillain]

Adobe may be the worst run company in the valley. Let me tell you a tale about Lightroom. For a very long time, it was THE dominant photography app. It wasn't meant for creative editing, like Photoshop, but more for what photographers typically do....cull 1000 photos from a session down to 20-100...and then tweak levels to compensate for your camera's preference for capturing as much data as it can over actually making it look good

...in fairness "looking good" is subjective and all the camera makers are Japanese...so they prefer complexity over taking power away from the user. This is very anti-Apple/Google...some like it, some don't...I'm neutral on the subject personally....but your photo out of a Canon/Sony/Nikon camera often doesn't look that great at first...then a quick tweak in Lightroom or now Photomator or any superior competitor to Lightroom...and they look amazing.

So Lightroom is introduced in 2007 and dominates the scene...kills all the smaller rivals and is a decent app. But it's fucking slow. Also, it doesn't scale. You have 1000 photos?...it's fine. I have 100,000...the fucker can't load them no matter how fast my SSD and CPU/GPU is. But it's 2007. No one cares. The app is stuck in 2007. It is a DB-driven application, which means move around a file in your File Explorer app?...ooops, you corrupted the DB...fix it. It has terrible locking, so you install it on Dropbox?...well, you BETTER close it on 1 machine before opening it on another...or else corruption...and you have to restore from backups...I hope you made backups!!!

Oh yeah, it's non-destructive....which is fucking stupid. I get why it exists, but there's no way to turn it off or finalize a photo. So you take a 40 megapixel photo with your fancy mirrorless camera with your expensive prime lens....you crop half the photo. The export is now 1/3 the size because you're focusing in on your kid and not the clouds and trees that were in the shot because you can't zoom. Oh, but the photo is taking up ALL the space. If you have 1000 photos?...great...more?...I hope you like paying lots of money for extra storage and waiting forever for the app to start. But...because it's non-destructive, you fuck up the DB?...your edits are lost. You can't view your image from other programs. You open it in explorer...no edits. Stupid AF. Again, some like it. I want to finalize my photos and not bother with a DB. Once I am done editing them, I am never touching them again. I am skeptical many photographers edit a photo continuously over 10 years. It would be nice to have a smaller file and more flexibility and less DB overhead.

However, the world changed and Lightroom's biggest sin was the lack of cloud support. Photography is a mobile art. I want to edit on my powerhouse desktop at home and my laptop on location...and maybe clean out my photos on my laptop on the train or plane....not an option. So Adobe fixes this.

But they commit the stupidest mistake in software I've ever seen....

They release a brand new app that has little in common with the Lightroom and call it "Lightroom." It's cloud-native, but only works with Adobe's shitty and overpriced cloud...and it works poorly and has about 1/3 of the features of Lighroom. The old Lightroom? It's now called Lightroom Classic. Stupidest mistake in history.

Why? Well, they documented the hell out of Lightroom...they didn't bother to document the new product much at all. This new product? They changed how it works, how it's laid out and most egregiously the fucking keyboard shortcuts. Imagine if VSCode or IntelliJ released a new version and changed EVERY shortcut? So all those hours I spent mastering editing Lightroom photos quickly?....useless because ALL the keyboard shortcuts changed. The point of Lightroom is to save time....edit lots of pics really fast....pick 2 winners out of a 100 photo burst, etc.

OK, so now take our favorite features and look up how to use them in the new app...save as DNG?...OK, w

Steal it, then sell it to the owner

[NotEmmanuelGoldstein]

So, I guess he's responsible for the Adobe model of stealing (as Adobe would say) all artistic works, then using AI to sell it back to artists.

retirement?

[kaatochacha]

However, he will shortly be informed that his retirement will require a monthly subscription, and failure to pay will mean coming back into the office.