Adobe Plans Layoffs, Overhaul to Focus on Digital

Adobe Systems Inc plans to lay off 750 positions and take a charge of up to $94 million as part of a restructuring to re-focus the company on digital media and marketing.

Shares in the design software maker, which is updating its suite of products to keep pace with new trends and moving to support the increasingly popular HTML5 programming language, fell almost 7 percent in after-hours trade.

Adobe said in a statement Tuesday it expects to record pre-tax charges of $87 million to $94 million for consolidation and severance, of which $73 million to $78 million would be booked in the fiscal quarter ending Dec. 2.

Adobe said it was sticking with previous estimates for the the fourth quarter for both revenue and earnings excluding items.

In September, Adobe projected revenue of $1.075 billion to $1.125 billion, and earnings excluding items of 57 cents to 64 cents a share, on a non-GAAP basis.

Shares in Adobe slid to $28.30 in extended trading, from a close of $30.42 on the Nasdaq. (Reporting by Edwin Chan; editing by Carol Bishopric)