Adobe Cuts Workforce to Shave Costs

Graphics and design software giant Adobe Systems (NASDAQ: ADBE) said that it’s cutting 680 jobs to help it slim down and reduce expenses.

The figure represents 9 percent of the company’s workforce before its recent acquisition of Omniture, a Web analytics company.

The layoffs won’t affect employees of the new unit, it said in an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. But the company added that it “expects to incur additional restructuring expenses relating to Omniture’s operations” in the future. It did not elaborate.

Adobe also said the cuts would force it to take a pretax restructuring charge of between $65 million and $71 million.

Earlier this week, influential Goldman Sachs analyst Sarah Friar upgraded Adobe from “neutral” to “buy,” and set a new 12-month price target of $42 a share.

At the time, Friar described Adobe as “a compelling investment case” owing to the upcoming debut of its Creative Suite 5 software.

She also cited strong sales and margin improvements ahead for the company in the near future. Shares of Adobe jumped 5 percent to a 52-week high of $36.58.

However, shares of ADBE were down 2.43 percent on the most recent news, trading at $35.71 at press time.