Adobe has reached an agreement to acquire Semrush, a startup specializing in search engine optimization (SEO), for approximately $1.9 billion, aiming to expand its portfolio of marketing services. Under the deal, Adobe will pay $12 per share of Semrush, nearly double the company’s stock price before the news was announced.
The platform Adobe is acquiring was founded in 2008 by two Russian programmers, Oleg Shchegolev and Dmitri Melnikov, who aimed to make the digital marketing world more transparent. Although its technical foundations and initial development began in Saint Petersburg, the founders moved the startup’s headquarters to Boston, USA, to scale it globally. The company went public in 2021, solidifying its international status.
Adobe’s strategic move is linked to significant changes in user behavior. People increasingly turn to AI chatbots rather than traditional search engines to read news, find recipes, or shop online. According to statistics, traffic directed from AI chatbots to e-commerce sites increased by 1,200% over the past year. As a result, Adobe anticipates that companies will invest more in “Generative Engine Optimization” (GEO)—ensuring visibility on platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, and other AI systems—alongside traditional SEO. Semrush’s years of experience will allow Adobe to offer marketers broader capabilities in this new era.
