Adobe to Slash 750 Jobs; Lowers Q4 Outlook (ADBE)

Shares of Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ: ADBE) have fallen sharply in pre-market trading today after the San Jose, California-based company announced it will layoff 750 workers, or 7% of its workforce. The company also lowered its fourth-quarter profit outlook.

Adobe shares are down 9.43% to $27.55 in pre-market trading today.

Adobe Systems, which provides a range of business, Web and mobile software and services, is slashing its workforce as it moves to focus on products that help in creating digital content that can be marketed on multiple devices and platforms.

Adobe has been investing aggressively in Digital Media and Digital Marketing, which it considers two growing market areas. The company plans to be a leader in Digital Marketing in providing solutions to manage, measure and optimize digital marketing and advertising.

Shantanu Narayen, President and CEO of Adobe Systems, said that the company’s mission is to produce the world’s content and maximize the impact of that content. Narayen said that the company is doubling down in the Digital Media and Digital Marketing categories.

Meanwhile, the technology company lowered its earnings guidance for the fourth quarter ending December 2, 2011 to reflect a charge of $73-$78 million related to restructuring. The company expects fourth-quarter net income to come in between $0.30 per share and $0.38 per share, compared with previous forecast of earnings of $0.41-$0.50 per share.

Adobe expects fourth-quarter adjusted earnings to still come in between $0.57 per share and $0.60 per share, which is in-line with the consensus estimate of $0.60 per share. The company also left its fourth-quarter revenue guidance unchanged at $1.075-$1.125 billion. Analysts currently expect Adobe to report fourth-quarter revenue of $1.09 billion.

For fiscal 2012, Adobe expects revenue growth of 4% to 6%, which is well below analysts’ forecast of growth of 9%.

Post Written By: Ed Liston Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.