Adobe to acquire Semrush for $1.9Bn

Adobe announced on Wednesday that it’s buying Semrush, a well-known search engine optimization company, for about $1.9 billion in cash. The deal reflects Adobe’s push to strengthen its marketing tools beyond creative software like Photoshop.

Adobe plans to pay $12 per share for Semrush — nearly double Tuesday’s closing price of $6.89, when the company was valued at around $1 billion.

The acquisition shows Adobe’s bet on a fast-changing digital landscape, where brands don’t just need to be visible on Google anymore. As consumers increasingly rely on AI—whether it’s chatbots, agents, or AI-powered browsers—to search, shop, find recipes, read the news, or plan travel, companies are now competing to show up in these AI results. That shift has opened an entirely new market for SEO platforms like Semrush.

Adobe’s own analytics highlights the trend: as of October, traffic coming to retail websites through generative AI tools surged 1,200% compared to a year ago.

To tap into this change, Semrush has been developing what it calls “generative engine optimization,” or GEO, offering tools that help brands optimize for both traditional search engines and AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Grok, and Perplexity.

“Brand visibility is being reshaped by generative AI, and brands that don’t embrace this new opportunity risk losing relevance and revenue,” said Anil Chakravarthy, president of Adobe’s Digital Experience Business. “With Semrush, we’re unlocking GEO for marketers as a new growth channel alongside traditional SEO, helping drive visibility, engagement, and conversions across the ecosystem.”