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Tough competition: Adobe issues sales warning

Adobe shocks the markets with a sales warning. The reason is tough competition in the industry and meagre demand for AI tools. 

According to its own statements on Thursday, the Photoshop provider expects revenues of between 5.5 and 5.55 billion dollars for the fourth quarter. According to LSEG data, analysts had expected 5.61 billion dollars. Adobe shares fell by more than nine percent in after-hours trading.

Excluding special items, Adobe expects quarterly earnings of between 4.63 and 4.68 dollars per share - compared to estimates of 4.67 dollars per share. Revenues for the quarter ended August were 5.41 billion dollars, above LSEG estimates of 5.37 billion dollars. Operating expenses for the third quarter totaled 2.86 billion dollars, up from 2.61 billion dollars a year earlier.

Adobe has equipped its flagship program, the image editing software Photoshop, with its self-developed artificial intelligence "Firefly". Unlike competing products such as Dall-E or Midjourney, it can reportedly take a hasty design drawing as a basis to create a professional image with the help of additional instructions.

However, analysts at the research firm Melius had already pointed out some time ago that competition was getting tougher. AI-supported programming aids favored the founding of start-ups. These then vied for the already scarce software developers.