Adobe to acquire Semrush for $1.9 billion to bolster marketing capabilities

Adobe announced on Wednesday that it has reached an agreement to acquire search engine optimisation platform Semrush in a deal valued at approximately $1.9 billion in cash, as the company moves to strengthen its portfolio of marketing solutions. The tech major stated that it will pay $12 per share for Semrush, nearly twice the firm’s closing price of $6.89 on Tuesday, when its market capitalisation stood at about $1 billion.

With this acquisition, Adobe is positioning itself for a future in which businesses increasingly prioritise optimisation of content and web pages for visibility on AI-powered tools, as consumers rely more heavily on AI chatbots, agents, and AI-enabled browsers for tasks such as reading the news, sourcing recipes, shopping, and booking travel. Adobe has observed a significant shift driven by generative AI, reporting through its Adobe Analytics unit that traffic from AI chatbots to retail websites surged by 1,200% year-on-year as of October.

Semrush has already been building momentum in what it describes as generative engine optimisation and has recently introduced a tool designed to monitor and improve website performance using both traditional SEO methods and optimisation for AI engines including ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Grok, and Perplexity. Adobe’s Digital Experience Business president, Anil Chakravarthy, stated that brand visibility is undergoing a transformation due to generative AI and that businesses failing to adapt risk losing both relevance and revenue. He informed that by bringing Semrush into its fold, Adobe aims to open up generative engine optimisation as a fresh growth channel for marketers, complementing traditional SEO while driving greater visibility, customer engagement, and conversions across digital ecosystems.