Adobe to Acquire Semrush Holdings

Adobe and Semrush Holdings, Inc. have announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Adobe will acquire Semrush, a leading brand visibility platform, in an all-cash transaction for $12.00 per share, representing a total equity value of approximately $1.9 billion. Semrush is a powerful partner for marketers looking to manage brand visibility and audience reach through its data-driven generative engine optimization (GEO) and search engine optimization (SEO) solutions.

Adobe is leading customer experience orchestration in the agentic AI era with comprehensive solutions spanning content supply chain, customer engagement and brand visibility. Adobe enables 99% of the Fortune 100, including The Coca-Cola Company, General Motors and IBM, to use AI to transform the way they work.

Brand visibility is top of mind for chief marketing officers as consumers increasingly turn to LLMs, such as ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, for information, recommendations and purchase decisions. As generative AI platforms become a new interface between customers and brands, organizations that invest in GEO alongside their SEO capabilities are poised to keep their brands represented, discovered and trusted across owned and earned channels.

Bringing its GEO capabilities and more than 10 years of SEO expertise, Semrush helps brands enhance their brand visibility and expand audience reach. Semrush’s solutions address a growing, essential need for marketers: remaining discoverable in AI search. As marketers increasingly turn to their SEO teams and partners to drive their generative AI marketing strategies, Semrush provides powerful solutions to deliver brand visibility and relevance. In its most recent quarter, Semrush drove 33% year-over-year Annual Recurring Revenue growth in its enterprise customer segment, earning the trust of industry leaders like Amazon, JPMorganChase and TikTok.

With products like AEM, Adobe Analytics and the newly introduced Adobe Brand Concierge, Adobe is solving major pain points for brands embracing agentic AI. Together, Adobe and Semrush will deliver a comprehensive solution that gives marketers a holistic understanding of how their brands appear across owned channels, LLMs, traditional search and the wider web.

“Brand visibility is being reshaped by generative AI, and brands that don’t embrace this new opportunity risk losing relevance and revenue,” said Anil Chakravarthy, president of Adobe’s Digital Experience Business. “With Semrush, we’re unlocking GEO for marketers as a new growth channel alongside their SEO, driving more visibility, customer engagement and conversions across the ecosystem.”

“Adobe is an industry leader in helping marketers create personalized customer experiences at scale. With the advent of LLMs and AI-driven search, brands need to understand where and how their customers are engaging in these new channels,” said Bill Wagner, chief executive officer of Semrush. “This combination provides marketers more insights and capabilities to increase their discoverability across today’s evolving digital landscape.”

Generative AI platforms are already driving shifts in consumer behavior. New data from Adobe Analytics showed that traffic from generative AI sources to U.S. retail sites increased by 1,200% year-over-year in October.

The transaction has been approved by the boards of directors of both Adobe and Semrush. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2026, subject to the receipt of required regulatory approvals and the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions, including the approval of Semrush’s stockholders. Adobe has received commitments to vote in favor of the transaction from Semrush’s founders and other stockholders representing over 75% of the voting power of Semrush.

Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is serving as legal advisor to Adobe in connection with the transaction. Centerview Partners LLC is serving as exclusive financial advisor to Semrush, and Davis Polk & Wardwell is serving as legal advisor to Semrush, in connection with the transaction.

Information for this article was sourced from Adobe.