Adobe CEO Narayen to step down as company reports strong Q1

Adobe said CEO Shantanu Narayen will step down as CEO once a successor has been named. He will remain chair of Adobe's board of directors.

"The privilege of leading this company has been the greatest honor of my career and I am committed to setting it up for its next decade of growth with the right leader and executive team in partnership with the Board while driving our FY26 strategic priorities," said Narayen.

The news about Narayan's departure after 18 years comes as Adobe reported strong first quarter results and said its AI-first annual recurring revenue has more than tripled from a year ago. The company reported first quarter earnings of $1.89 billion, or $4.60 a share, on revenue of $6.4 billion, up 12% from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings were $6.06 a share.

Wall Street was expecting Adobe to report non-GAAP earnings of $5.87 a share on revenue of $6.28 billion.

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Narayen said AI is generating upside for Adobe. "Our mission to empower everyone to create represents an even larger opportunity as content powers all experiences in the AI era," said Narayen.

In prepared remarks, Narayen added:

"At Adobe, we are targeting Business Professionals & Consumers and Creative & Marketing Professionals through differentiated AI-infused and AI-first product offerings, across various routes to market and different monetization models. With creativity at the core, we are expanding innovation in all our flagship applications, as well as investing in new offerings. These new products include Adobe Acrobat Studio with Adobe Express, Adobe Firefly, and Adobe GenStudio. Our new AI-first offerings ending ARR more than tripled year over year, reflecting progress against this opportunity with individuals and enterprises alike."

Narayen said that a "deep understanding of creativity domains, vast amounts of data and delivery of complex workflows" sets the company up well in the AI era.

By the numbers:

• RPO at the end of the first quarter was $22.22 billion.
• Business professionals and consumer subscription revenue was $1.78 billion, up 16% from a year ago.
• Creative and marketing professional subscription revenue was $4.39 billion, up 12% from a year ago.

For the second quarter, Adobe projected revenue between $6.43 billion to $6.48 billion with non-GAAP earnings of $5.80 a share to $5.85 a share. Creative and marketing professional subscription revenue will be between $4.41 billion and $4.44 billion. Business pro and consumer subscription revenue for the second quarter will be between $1.80 billion and $1.82 billion.