Rob Tarkoff, SVP Adobe Systems Inc

(This is not a legal transcript. Bloomberg LP cannot guarantee its accuracy.)

ROB TARKOFF, SVP ADOBE SYSTEMS INC, TALKS ABOUT ADOBE AT BLOOMBERG SURVEILLANCE

JUNE 21, 2011

SPEAKERS: TOM KEENE, BLOOMBERG SURVEILLANCE HOST

KEN PREWITT, BLOOMBERG SURVEILLANCE CO-HOST

ROB TARKOFF, SVP ADOBE SYSTEMS INC

9:37

TOM KEENE, BLOOMBERG SURVEILLANCE HOST: He is in the trenches of employment, senior vice president and general manager, Adobe Systems Incorporated, the land of the .pdf, Rob Tarkoff. Rob, good morning.

ROB TARKOFF, SVP ADOBE SYSTEMS INC.: Good morning. How are you guys?

KEENE: Well, I'm really good since the .pdf was invented. People ask me how we do what we do here, and it is like Google and Wikipedia and all the great resources of Bloomberg. And you guys are at the foundation of how Ken and I do this every day. We live and die off .pdfs. You are going to do customer enterprise solutions. What does that mean?

TARKOFF: Yes, well, first of all it is great to hear about .pdf. I feel the same way. It is a great innovation. So we have been undergoing a lot of transformation at Adobe and across our history .pdf is just one of the things we have done to change the way people interact with information, change the way they do business over the internet.

So one of the things I launched recently was the Adobe Digital Enterprise Platform. Now what that really is is Adobe going after big business. We have historically sold the creative and officer workers, -

KEENE: Right.

TARKOFF: - people who use all our tools. And now we are going after bigger solutions focused on large companies because of all the change that happened with social media and interaction over the web. I think Adobe is really well positioned to meet this.

KEENE: Well, within this, and IBM's hundredth anniversary where we've seen Palmisano and company do a fabulous job there, what can you take from the best practices of an IBM and bring it over to someone relatively younger, like Adobe Systems?

TARKOFF: Yes, well, certainly 27.8 years old is younger than a hundred. That is for sure. But on the internet and for digital business, we are a pretty established name.

And I think the major difference that we bring is our heritage is all about design. We have been designing great experiences with products like Photoshop and with .pdf and Acrobat. And today, the only way for a company to differentiate itself is with a really well designed experience.

And if you can design it across social media and the web and all the internet channels, and you can tie that to really good measurement, which we have with our online analytic schools, you have a pretty powerful offering.

So while I think IBM is a terrific company and there is lots to be learned from how they have established this hundred year legacy, there is also a rich history with Adobe. And I think we have a really good shot to continue to transform experiences across the web and across social media where people want an Adobe-like experience, they want something that looks and feels like a rich game or a Photoshop experience, something that a company can really use to express itself well.

KEN PREWITT, BLOOMBERG SURVEILLANCE CO-HOST: Yes, can you give us an example, kind of a nuts and bolts example, of what you can do?

TARKOFF: Yes, absolutely. So we have a number of large customers that have traditional channels of reaching their customers in a branch or over the phone and now they are seeing all their customers move to the web. And not just to the web, they are moving to social media as a primary decision- making point.

So we help large banks and insurance companies try to figure out - you know, if I have hundreds and thousands of customers who are undergoing generational wealth transfers, and now I've got to figure out how I attract the up and coming breadwinners in those families, I have got to recreate all the customer touch points I have had on the web. So I have got to build a really good website. I've got to build a really good presence on social networks. I've got to maybe build my own community. And I've got to help people do things like enroll for accounts, or better manage their finances, or understand all the products and services I have to offer.

KEENE: What is fascinating about this, Rob, and I don't want to mention the names - we are not in the business of selling companies - but I just went to one financial website and then to a different one and as you say, they were like night and day in terms of ease of use and communicating.

I want to take it back to your days at Amherst College. You went to one of the classic liberal arts colleges of this nation where communication is everything. How do you communicate on the internet? What is the trick - like Adobe and fonts, or Adobe and .pdfs? What is the software design trick to communicating, to getting that experience across?

TARKOFF: Yes, that is a great question. And I like to think that at some level I am going to get the return on investment for the amount of money and loans it cost me to go to Amherst. But in any event, the amazing thing about expressiveness on the web is it is really the same principles. You have to create a unique look and feel, you have to find the message that resonates.

The challenge is there is so much noise on the internet today. There are all sorts of different messages, be it banner ads or display, or pop ups that are coming at people. And so to really find that balance between a well designed application, whether it is on my mobile device or on my website over a PC, to find a well designed ap and be able to have that message push through in a way that attracts people, that wants them to recommend it to their friends, that makes it want to be a part of the fabric of who they are.

KEENE: Yes.

TARKOFF: You know, that is the big difference in brands today. People want brands to reflect who they are, not to be what the brand wants them to be.

KEENE: Your thoughts on the latest frenzy out in your Silicon Valley, whether it is LinkedIn or Pandora or Groupon or whatever other one they are going to throw at us, just your thoughts on this vintage. Have you seen this before? Or is there something new this time?

TARKOFF: Well, I saw this before. You know, I was an early part of the Commerce One team, and Commerce One was one of the web 1.0, B2B software companies that helped transform the way companies exchange business services over the internet back in 1997, 1998.

And I think what is different time is social media and community-based participation has just fundamentally changed the power balance. Today consumers have all the power. And because they have all the power, they are demanding major transformation to businesses. And that is not something in my opinion that is a flash in the pan. That is really a sustainable change.

The way I experience a brand is very different than just sitting down on my living room couch and watching it on TV. If you watch - if you have kids that are teenagers or even younger than that, the multitasking and experience of brand that goes on today is really transformative. And I think we are at the very early part of that, whether it is somebody experiencing LinkedIn looking for a job, or whether it is somebody experiencing a whole set of offers from local merchants. We are just at the beginning of that.

I cannot comment on the valuation of these companies; that is your guy's job. But I do think that the opportunity is really transformative.

KEENE: Wonderful. Rob Tarkoff, thank you so much, Adobe Systems, Incorporated, Digital Enterprise Solutions.

***END OF TRANSCRIPT***

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