I miss Breeze. While listening to the Adobe webcast (audio only) - I REALLY, REALLY want the Breeze back.

http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/invrelations/webcast.html

Without Breeze, (and because of some Internet connection problem), I couldn't hear more details of the audiocast. What I've heard (at the end of the audiocast):

• The results are very good - both in revenues and profit (a 38 percent higher quarterly profit)
• $25M are "lost" during the merger
• 700 employees will be laid off (from both companies) - because of the overlapping
  
• Bruce saying "the explosion of digital content, more mobile devices and more broadband will help Adobe provide more content".
  
• The rest of the speech is pretty standard, repeating the things around the Flash direction in Adobe.
• The engament platform - how the products will merge
  
• Murray - the current CFO/VP - is leaving "to spend more time with the family". politics, politics. He's staying until a replacement is found.
  

Interesting questions post presentation (I've skipped the ones too related to shares and stock):

• Q: About the new products release (maybe in sync with Q4?)
  
• A: we shouldn't assume anything about rushing up into releasing, we will focus on the customer and deliver what it takes, when it takes
• Q: what will fuel Q1?
• A: the merged products will be the driver
• Q: restructuring - is the headcount final? do people know already?
  
• A: it's not restructuring, it's rationalizing resources; without overlap; we have to do it fast - at once. Reduction: across the organization, sales and marketing and r&d. The employees don't know yet.
• Q: detail the impact of Macromedia in the next year estimates
• A: we won't provide the information. but we're planning to continue as a combined company, without any separation between them.
• Q: how will Adobe reward talent with stock options?
  
• A: we need talent, we'll not undercompensate our employees. We don't want our employees leaving and we want to attract new employees (don't let them all go to Google :)
  
• Q: why is murray leaving?
  
• A: he's leaving a company in perfect health, with the right people
• Q: long term product development plan: how much time will the unification take? (2-3 years?). At MAX, when talking about the Apollo project ...
  
• A: depends of the combined company strength. the unbiquity of the Flash player and the Adobe reader - a client that runs on PC/NonPC/mobile. We're looking at the following strategy: how can we combine the best from Studio and CS? File format compatibility. We have many/many types of integration ideas we're working on. Breeze merge with Acrobat. Flex and ColdFusion associated with LiveCycle - a better solution for CIOs. Expect to see innovation and regular product cycle from us.
  
• Q: direct sales and entreprise sales? Macromedia was more open...
  
• A: a sales manager meeting from around the world happened 2 days ago. We were able to increase the size of the sales organization after integrating the Macromedia efforts. Our sales force has become much more powerful - it's exciting to see this moving in the right direction
  
• Q: question on the bundle ... it's only a repackaging - expect incremental revenues?
  
• A: too early to tell if the bundle is better... but we expect so.
  
• Q: how quickly can you achieve the channel integration?
  
• A: we are on our way of achieving our synergies as we speak, after a thorough analysis. By the end of Q1 this should be finalized. On Day 1- we've integrated network, firewall, conference. On Day 1 - online sales active. etc - on Day 1. We can see revenue reports every 6 hours from around the world, the integration is very solid for both companies.
  
• Q: hyphotetical timeline.. will CS3 appear before a combined product?
  
• A: we can't answer these questions (competitors, etc). we plan to release some products throuought this year. It will take us a number of generations to be where we want to be.
  
• Q: the revenues per customer will change?
  
• A: we have segmented the market clearly - web, video, photo. we believe that we'll continue to deliver these bundles to cover various needs.
  
• Q: how will Adobe capitalize the new Adobe platform?
  
• A: when apple will move to Intel or M$ move to Vista - we'll be there with our products - supporting Intel Apple. When customer switch, it's a greater oportunity for us to sell them new software ...
  
• Q: how will the Macromedia products from the Other category will end up inside Adobe's offering?
  
• A: we're looking at the business segment clasification ... Contribute is for updating websites - and we'll continue to invest in this business
  
• Q: relationship with SAP, IBM, etc
  
• A: if you look at the performance of Adobe, second half of 2005 is much better than first half. We're excited about our business - entering government. Flex and ColdFusion will add to our momentum in this market.
  
• Q: how will web pages (HTML) will compete with Adobe Forms?
  
• A: scenarios: Flex for experience and data capture. Acrobat for the next layers. Flex and ColdFusion with Lifecycle should be brought together.
  
• Q: from a designer perspective - what is the value proposition to buy the "design bundle" instead of CS2?
  
• A: people that produce content for print - want to make their offering available on the web. The ability to use animation and take content from one medium and move it to the web is interesting. People use Illustration and can animate using Flash.
  

Alexandru

PS I hope that we'll see Breeze back soon in the Adobe future webcasts.