Adobe profit beats estimates

NEW YORK: Photoshop maker Adobe Systems Inc on Thursday reported a better-than-expected quarterly revenue and profit, driven by strength in its digital media business, which houses its flagship product Creative Cloud.

Shares of the company, which also forecast first-quarter profit above estimates, were up 1.7 percent at $178 in extended trading. The shift to cloud-based subscription has brought a more predictable revenue stream for Adobe, by selling its software through web-based subscriptions, and not through the sale of packaged-licensed software.

Revenue from Adobe´s digital media business rose 29.2 percent to $1.39 billion, beating analysts´ estimate of $1.35 billion, according to financial data and analytics firm FactSet. "Digital Media could benefit from strong seasonality, especially with ETLA (Enterprise Term License Agreement) renewals as enterprises could expand more aggressively in front of price lift," Cowen and Co analyst Derrick Wood wrote in a pre-earnings note.