이번 보고서
2025 연차보고서
10-K · 기간 말 2025. 11. 28. · 제출 2026. 1. 15.
비교 기준
2024 연차보고서
10-K · 기간 말 2024. 11. 29.
1
새 리스크 항목
9
신규 문단
58
수정 문단
13
삭제
+4%
분량 변화
AI 한국어 요약
한 줄 요약
Adobe는 생성형·에이전트형 AI 경쟁 심화와 외부 AI 모델 도입에 따른 법적·비용 리스크를 크게 강조했고, 관세·지정학 요인과 대규모 보안 사고 가능성을 새 위험으로 명시했습니다.
주목할 변화
- 강화AI 경쟁 위협 구체화경쟁자 범위에 "new entrants, and AI or cloud-native companies"를 넣고, 경쟁 영역으로 프롬프트 기반 제작, 문서 생산성, 광고 제작, "purpose-built AI agents"를 열거했습니다. 경쟁사가 차별화된 데이터 학습 전략이나 "proprietary access to data"로 더 빨리 채택될 수 있다고 밝혔고, 경쟁 실패 시 영향도 "could materially suffer"로 높였습니다.
- 신규외부 AI 모델 의존과 접근 제한"as we offer more third-party AI models in our solutions"라며 외부 모델 탑재 확대를 명시했습니다. 이로 인한 "intellectual property infringement claims"와 고객 이탈 가능성, 연산 비용 증가를 새로 적었습니다. 다른 회사가 외부 모델 사용을 "prevent, limit or interfere"한 적이 이미 있다고도 밝혔습니다.
- 신규공급망형 대규모 보안 사고 가능성자사 솔루션이 많은 기업의 공급망에 들어가 있어 침해가 발생하면 "all of our customers and their data for a given solution could be simultaneously affected"될 수 있다고 새로 경고했습니다. AI를 활용한 새로운 공격 방식과 오픈소스 취약점도 추가했으며, 자사 통제가 "may not keep pace with quickly evolving threats"할 수 있다고 인정했습니다.
- 강화EU AI Act 직접 적용시행 예정이던 규제가 이제 "obligations under the EU AI Act have gone into effect"로 바뀌었습니다. "Some of our operations are subject to the EU AI Act"라고 직접 적용 대상임을 밝히고 과징금 가능성도 언급했습니다. 미국의 연방 행정명령과 주 단위 AI 입법도 새로 추가됐습니다.
- 강화관세·지정학과 엔터프라이즈 계약 지연리스크 제목에 "geopolitical"이 추가됐고, 무역 제한 항목에 "tariffs"가 반복해서 들어갔습니다. 무역분쟁과 관세가 기업 고객의 구매 결정을 지연시켰으며, 특히 "larger and more complex deals"에서 그렇다고 명시했습니다.
- 강화데이터·개인정보 규제의 실제 영향EU 디지털서비스법(DSA)·데이터법(Data Act), 미국 법무부의 민감 데이터 이전 규칙, 한국 개인정보보호법을 새로 거론했습니다. 법무부 규칙은 "has impacted the transfer of data in connection with certain transactions"라고 했고, 규제가 이미 "has resulted in more onerous obligations in our contracts"라며 실제 영향을 인정했습니다.
- 강화평판 훼손이 수요 감소로 연결평판 리스크의 결과로 "reduced customer demand and customer attrition"을 새로 명시했습니다. 비판 대상 목록에 "dispute resolution requirements"를 추가했습니다.
- 강화주가 변동성 인정과 ARR 지표제목이 "may be volatile"에서 "has been volatile"로 바뀌어 과거 변동성을 인정했습니다. 주가 변동 요인에 연간반복매출(ARR) 변화와 "changes to our key performance metrics"를 추가했습니다.
읽는 법
이번 변화의 중심은 AI가 Adobe에 기회이자 위협이라는 인식이 더 직접적으로 바뀌었다는 점입니다. AI 네이티브 경쟁사, 외부 모델에 대한 의존, 모델 접근 제한이 모두 구체적으로 적혔습니다. 여러 리스크에서 "may"(가능성) 대신 "has"(이미 발생)로 표현이 바뀐 점도 눈여겨볼 만합니다. 앞으로 실적 발표에서 핵심 지표(ARR 등) 정의의 변경 여부, 외부 AI 모델 관련 법적 분쟁, 대형 엔터프라이즈 계약의 진행 상황을 확인하면 이 리스크들이 실제로 나타나는지 판단하는 데 도움이 됩니다.
원문 비교
- •inability to achieve the expected financial and strategic benefits on a timely basis or at all;
- •in the case of foreign transactions, the impact of particular economic, tax, currency, political, legal and regulatory risks associated with specific countries;
- •brand or reputational harm associated with our acquisitions, investments or other strategic transactions; and
- If we are unable to develop, manage and maintain our sales channels, including our direct sales force, third-party distributors, and sales partners, or third-party relationships upon which we rely for critical business operations, our revenue and business may be adversely affected.
- •tax laws in the United States as well as other countries and jurisdictions;
- •changes in, or impositions of, legislative or regulatory requirements in the United States and other countries, including antitrust and competition regulations, consumer protection laws, or other government actions;
- We may be subject to certain aspects of the EU’s Digital Services Act, which imposes additional legal requirements on certain types of digital service providers, including online platforms and content sharing sites. Moreover, some of our customers are subject to the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act and similar UK regulatory requirements on operational resilience. There may be certain aspects of the EU’s Data Act that could apply to certain types of cloud services providers and require them to facilitate data portability (e.g., switching between services), as well as certain requirements concerning cross border international transfers of, and governmental access to, non-personal information outside of the European Economic Area. Further, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a rule entitled Preventing Access to U.S. Sensitive Personal Data and Government-Related Data by Countries of Concern or Covered Persons, which placed additional restriction on certain data transactions involving countries of concern and covered individuals that may impact certain business activities, and has impacted the transfer of data in connection with certain transactions.
- •changes to our key performance metrics;
- •other events, such as significant litigation, regulatory investigations or actions, and negative media or social media coverage.
- We may be unsuccessful at innovating in response to rapid technological or industry changes to meet customer needs, which could cause our
operatingbusiness and financial results tosuffer.suffer materially. - We operate in rapidly evolving industries and expect the pace of innovation to continue to accelerate. We must continually introduce
new,new and enhanceexisting, products, services andexisting solutions to retain customers and attract new customers. Developing newproducts, services andsolutions is complex, requires significant investment and operational costs and may not be profitable, and our investments in new technologies are speculative and may not yield the expected business or financial benefits. The commercial success of new or enhancedproducts, services andsolutions depends on a number of factors, including timely and successful development; effective distribution and marketing; market acceptance; compatibility with existing and emerging standards, platforms, software delivery methods and technologies; accurately predicting and anticipating customer needs and expectations and the direction of technological change; identifying and innovating in the right technologies; and differentiation from otherproducts, services andsolutions. If we fail to anticipate or identify technological,creativecreative, productivity or marketing trends or fail to devote appropriate resources to adapt to such trends, our business could be harmed. For example, artificial intelligence (“AI”), including generative and agentic, enables users of all skill levels to create and provide new ways of marketing, creating and editing content and interacting with documents. While wehave releasedcontinue to release newgenerative artificial intelligence products, such as Adobe Firefly,AI solutions andare focusedto focus on enhancing theartificial intelligence (“AI”)AI capabilities of ourproductssolutions and incorporating AI across existingproducts, services andsolutions, there can be no assurance that our new or enhancedproductssolutions and AI innovations will be successful, adopted or monetizable or that we will innovate effectively to keep pace with the rapid evolution of AI across ourofferings.solutions. If we do not successfully innovate, adapt to rapid technological or industry changes and meet customer needs, our business and our financial results may be materially harmed. - We participate in rapidly evolving and intensely competitive markets, and, if we do not compete effectively, our
operatingbusiness and financial results could materially suffer. - The markets for our
products, services andsolutions are rapidly evolving and intensely competitive. We expect competition to continue to intensify. Our numerous competitors include companies of various sizes and both public and private companies, including large, global companies and smaller companies with more specialized focuses, new entrants, and AI or cloud-native companies. Our competitors include companies with significant sales and research and development resources, broad brand awareness, long operating histories or access to large customer bases. Our competitors may deploy technical, marketing and financial resources more easily and effectively. Our competitors may develop or acquire additional products, services or solutions that are similar to ours or that achieve greater or fasteracceptance, may undertake more far-reaching and successful product development efforts or marketing campaigns or may adopt more aggressive pricing policies.acceptance. Our competitors may undertake faster and more far-reaching and successful development efforts or marketing campaigns, may adopt more aggressive pricing policies or may more effectively appeal to customers. As a result, current and potential customers may select the products, services or solutions of our competitors. New industry standards, evolving distribution and sales models, limited barriers to entry, short product life cycles, customer price sensitivity, globalmarketeconomic conditions and the frequent entry of newproductssolutions or competitors may increase downward pressure on pricing and gross margins and adversely affect our renewal, upsell and cross-sell rates as well as our ability to attract new customers. In addition, we expect to face more competition as AI continues to advance and be integrated into the markets in which wecompete.compete and to change the software industry. Our competitors or other third parties may develop AI solutions more rapidly or successfully, including but not limited to different data training strategies or proprietary access to data and, as a result, other AI solutions may achieve greater and faster adoption. For example, we face increasing competition from companies offering generative and agentic AI solutions, including but not limited to prompt-based and multi-modal creation and editing, document productivity and understanding, ad distribution and creation, and purpose-built AI agents. Other companies have in the past, and may in the future prevent, limit or interfere with our ability to use third-party models in our solutions. If we are not able to provideproducts, services andsolutions that compete effectively, we could experience reducedsalessales, which could materially and adversely impact our businesscould be adversely affected.and financial results. For additional information regarding our competition and the risks arising out of the competitive environment in which we operate, see the section titled “Competition” contained in Part I, Item 1 of this report. - Issues relating to the development and use of
AI, including generative AI,AI in ourofferingssolutions may result in reputational harm, liability and adverse business and financial results. - Social, ethical and operational issues relating to the use of AI, including generative AI and agentic AI, in our
offeringssolutions may result in reputational harm, liability and additional costs. We are increasingly incorporating AI technologies, developed by us and by third parties, into many of ourofferings.solutions. If our AI development, deployment, content labeling or governance is ineffective or inadequate, it may result in incidents that impair the public acceptance of AI solutions or cause harm to individuals, customers or society, or result in ourofferingssolutions not working as intended or producing unexpected outcomes. - Jurisdictions around the world are developing and passing new regulations that apply specifically to the use of AI. For example, the U.S. AI regulatory framework remains in development and has been introduced at the federal level through executive orders and legislation has been introduced and enacted at the state level.
For example,Additionally, obligations under the EU AI Actwas adopted in 2024have gone into effect and will continue to be implemented in phases through 2030, and other jurisdictions have passed or are considering similarly focused legislation. Some of our operations are subject to the EU AI Act and depending on how the EU AI Act is implemented and interpreted, we may have to adapt our business practices, contractual arrangements and services to comply with such obligations. Non-compliant companies under the EU AI Act may be subject to administrative fines. These regulations and the evolving AI regulatory environment may, among other impacts, result in inconsistencies among AI regulations and frameworks across jurisdictions, increase our compliance, governance and research and development costs, increase our exposure to investigations, proceedings and claims related to our AI models and increase liability related to the use of AI by our customers or users that are beyond our control.While we have taken a responsible approach to the development and use of AI, such as in our Adobe Firefly offerings, thereThere can be no guarantee that future AI regulations or standards will not adversely impact us or conflict with our approach toAI,AI development and use, including affecting our ability to make our AIofferingssolutions available without costly changes, delaying or halting development of AIofferings,solutions, requiring us to change our AI development practices, monetization strategies and/or indemnity protections and subjecting us to additional compliance requirements, regulatory action, competitive harm, reputational harm and/or legal liability.To the extentAdditionally, as werely onoffer more third-party AI models in ourproducts, services andsolutions, wewillface risks inherent in howthosethird-party AI models used in our solutions have been developed and deployed, including situations in which the third party may lack a proper license or consent for the training data used for their model. The use and availability of third-party AI models in our solutions could result in scrutiny and legal liability, including intellectual property infringement claims. Such claims or scrutiny could cause reputational harm and loss of customers, and adversely impact our business and financial results. In addition, new competition regulations on AI development and deployment could impose new requirements on our markets that could impact our business and financial results. - Uncertainty around new and evolving AI uses may require significant, additional investment to develop models and proprietary datasets, responsible-use frameworks and new approaches and processes to attribute or compensate content creators. We have experienced, and may in the future experience, challenges accessing AI models, datasets or hardware. Developing, testing and deploying AI systems and third-party AI models may
alsocontinue to increase the cost of ourofferings,solutions, including due to the nature of the computing costs involved in such systems. These costs could adversely impact our margins as we continue to make significant investments in AI development, add AI capabilities and third-party AI models to ourofferingssolutions and scale our AIofferingssolutions without assurance that our customers and users will adopt them. Further, as with any newofferingssolutions based on new and rapidly evolving technologies, consumer reception and monetization pathways are uncertain, our strategies may not be successful and our business and financial results could be adversely impacted.NewAIofferings and technologies couldsolutions may continue to modify workforce needs, result in negativepublicity about AIpublicity, reputational harm, liability anddecreasedecreased demand for ourexisting products, services andsolutions, all of which could adversely impact our business. - We believe our reputation and brands have been, and we expect them to continue to be, important to our business and financial results. Maintaining and enhancing our brands may require us to make substantial investments and these investments may not be successful. We have experienced, and may in the future experience, reputational
harmharm, reduced customer demand and customer attrition from, among other things, the introduction of new products, features, services, or terms that do not meet customer expectations; our position on or approach to new and evolving technologies, including AI; backlash from customers, the creative community, government entities or other stakeholders that disagree with our product offering decisions or public policy, social, ethical or political positions; significant litigation or regulatory or government actions that negatively reflect on our business practices; data security breaches or compliance failures; and public scrutiny or negative publicity, including being the target of media and social media campaigns, criticizing our actual or perceived actions or inactions, policies, terms, agreements, dispute resolution requirements, handling of user privacy, data practices or content.Further, ourOur brands may be negatively affected by the actual or perceived failure to meet our sustainability commitments or appropriately respond to climate concerns; and uses of ourproducts, services orsolutions, particularly our AIofferings,solutions, in ways that are out of our control, such as to create or disseminate content that is deemed to be misleading, deceptive or intended to manipulate public opinion, or for illicit, objectionable or illegal ends, or by our failure to respond appropriately and in a timely manner to such uses.SuchFurther, such uses of our solutions may result in controversy or claims related to defamation, rights of publicity, illegal content, intellectual property infringement, harmful content, misinformation and disinformation, harmful bias, misappropriation, data privacy, derivative uses of third-party AI and personal injury torts. If we fail to appropriately respond to objectionable content created using ourproducts, services orsolutions or shared on our platforms, our users may lose confidence in our brands. Entry into markets with weaker protection of brands or changes in the legal systems in countries in which we operate may also impact our ability to protect our brands. If we fail to maintain, enhance or protect our brands, or if we incur excessive expenses in our efforts to do so, our users’ trust in us and purchasing decisions and our business and financial results may be adversely affected. - We may not realize the anticipated benefits of acquisitions, investments or
acquisitions,other strategic transactions, and they may disrupt our business anddivert management’s attention.adversely affect our business and financial results. - We have acquired and may continue to acquire businesses, products, talent and technologies as part of our business strategy.
InvestmentsAcquisitions, investments andacquisitionsother strategic transactions involve numerous risks and uncertainties, the occurrence of which may have an adverse effect on our business. These risks and uncertainties include: - •difficulty in effectively integrating
theoperations, technologies, products, services, solutions, culture orpersonnel of the acquired business;personnel; - •challenges to completing or failure to complete an announced
investment or acquisitiontransaction related to the failure to obtain regulatory approval, or the need to satisfy certain conditions precedent to closing such transaction (such as divestitures, ownership or operational restrictions or other structural or behavioral remedies) that could limit the anticipated benefits of the transaction; - •delay in customer and distributor purchasing decisions due to uncertainty about the direction of our
product and service offerings;solutions; - •incurring higher than anticipated costs to effectively integrate an acquired business, to bring an acquired company into compliance with applicable laws and regulations, additional compensation issued or assumed in connection with an acquisition, to divest products, services or solutions acquired in unsuccessful
investments or acquisitions,acquisitions to amortize costs for acquired intangible assets or because of our inability to take advantage of anticipated tax benefits; - •difficulty in maintaining controls, procedures and policies during the transition and integration of an acquired business and inability to conclude that our internal controls over financial reporting are effective;
- •potential identified or unknown security vulnerabilities in acquired or integrated entities’ systems, technologies, or products that expose us to additional security risks or delay our ability to integrate the
productacquired products into ourofferings;existing solutions; - •exposure to litigation or other claims in connection with, or inheritance of claims or litigation risk as a result of,
an acquisition;a transaction; - •incurrence of additional debt to finance
an acquisition,a transaction, which will increase our interest expense and leverage, and/or issuance of equity securities to financeacquisitions,transactions, which will dilute current shareholders’ percentage ownership and earnings per share;and - Our ability to acquire other businesses or technologies, make strategic investments or integrate acquired businesses effectively may also be impaired by adverse economic and political events, including trade tensions, and increased global scrutiny and evolving regulatory expectations relating to acquisitions and other strategic
investments.transactions. We may not be able to complete acquisitions or other strategic transactions to realize the anticipated benefits of such acquisitions or transactions on favorable terms, or at all, including as a result of challenges in obtaining regulatory approvals, and may incur additional costs. For example, we have experienced difficulties in obtaining regulatory approvals, resulting in the termination of a previously announced acquisition and the incurrence of additional costs. Any of these factors may adversely affect our business and financialcondition or results of operations.results. - Service interruptions or failures of our
or third-partyinformation technology systems or those of third parties may impair the availability of ourproducts, services andsolutions, which may expose us to liability, damage our reputation and harm our future financial results. - Much of our business, including our online store at
adobe.com andadobe.com, our cloudsolutions,solutions and various business processes such as our enterprise resource planning system and customer and sales support, relies on hardware and services that are hosted, managed and controlled directly by us or third-party service providers to be available to our customers and users without disruption. We do not have redundancy for all our systems, many of our critical applications (“apps”) reside in only one of our data centers, and our disaster recovery planning may not account for all eventualities. If any critical third-party service provider of hosting or content delivery services is negatively affected or becomes unavailable to us for any reason, we may not be able to deliver the correspondingproducts, services orsolutions to our customers and users. Failure of our systems or those of our third-party service providers could cause large, system-wide failures, disrupt our business operations and those of our customers, subject us to reputational harm, require costly and time-intensive notifications, and cause us to lose customers, users and future business. Occasionally, we migrate data among data centers and to third-party hosted environments. If a transition among data centers or to third-party service providers encounters unexpected interruptions, unforeseen complexity or unplanned disruptions despite precautions undertaken during the process, this may impair our delivery ofproducts, services andsolutions to customers and result in increased costs and liabilities, which may harm ouroperatingfinancial results, reputation andourbusiness. - Our
products, services andsolutions collect, store, manage and otherwise process third-party data, including our customers’ data and our own data. Suchproducts, services andsolutions as well as our technologies, systems and networks have been subject to, and may in the future be subject to, cyberattacks, computer viruses, ransomware or other malware, fraud, worms, social engineering, denial-of-service attacks, malicious software programs, insider threats and other cybersecurity incidents that have in the past, and may in the future, result in the unauthorized access, disclosure, acquisition, use, loss or destruction of sensitive personal or business data belonging to us, our employees and our customers. Some of our solutions include third-party open-source software, which may contain security vulnerabilities that may be exploited, potentially compromising our solutions. Increasing use of AI in our internal systems and solutions may create new attack methods. - Cybersecurity incidents can be caused by human error from our workforce or that of our third-party service providers, by malicious third parties, acting alone or in groups, or by more sophisticated organizations, including nation-states and state-sponsored organizations. Such risks may be elevated in connection with geopolitical tensions, including the Russia-Ukraine war and the conflict in the Middle
East.East, as well as malicious third parties utilizing emerging technologies, such as AI and machine learning. Certain unauthorized parties have in the past managed, and may in the future manage, to overcome our security measures and those of our third-party service providers to access and misuse systems and software by exploiting defects indesigndesign, configuration or manufacture, including bugs,vulnerabilitiesvulnerabilities, change management errors and other problems that unexpectedly compromise the security or operation of a product or system. Further, unauthorized parties or authorized parties that exceed their authorized access may also gain physical access to our facilities and infiltrate our information systems or attempt to gain logical access to ourproducts, servicessolutions or information systems to access content and data and may result in computer viruses, worms, ransomware or other malware. Malicious third parties have in the past, and may in the future, fraudulently induce our employees or users of ourproducts, services orsolutions to disclose sensitive, personal or confidential information via illegal electronic spamming, phishing, social engineering or other tactics, and this risk is heightened in our current hybrid model working environment. - Our solutions are incorporated into the supply chain of a large number of companies worldwide and, as a result, if our solutions experience a compromise, a large portion or, in some instances, all of our customers and their data for a given solution could be simultaneously affected. The potential liability and associated consequences we could suffer as a result of such a large scale event could be significant, and materially and adversely impact our business. Malicious actors may also engage in fraudulent or abusive activities through our
products, services andsolutions, including unauthorized use of accounts through stolen credentials, use of stolen credit cards or other payment vehicles, failure to pay for services accessed, or other activities that violate our terms of service. While we actively combat such fraudulent activities, we have experienced, and may in the future experience, impacts to our revenue and reputation from such activities. - Maintaining the security of our
products, services andsolutions is a critical issue for us and our customers. We devote significant resources to address security vulnerabilities through various methods, including, but not limited to, engineering more secure products, enhancing security and reliability features in our products and systems, regularly reviewing our service providers’ security controls, and continually assessing and improving, as appropriate, our incident response process. However, it is impossible to accurately predict the extent, frequency or impact cybersecurity issues may have on us, and our security measures do not provide full effective protection from all such events. There can be no assurance that we have the capability to detect all vulnerabilities or new attack methods and our internal security controls may not keep pace with quickly evolving threats. The costs to prevent, eliminate, mitigate or remediate cybersecurity or other security problems and vulnerabilities are significant and may reduce our margins. Breaches of our security measures and the accidental loss, inadvertent disclosure or unauthorized dissemination of proprietary information or sensitive, personal or confidential data about us, our employees, our customers or their end users, including the potential loss or disclosure of such information or data have in the past, and could in the future, expose us, our employees, our customers or other individuals affected to a risk of loss or misuse of this information. Further, our efforts to address these problems, including notifying affected third parties when appropriate, have in the past been, and may in the future be, unsuccessful or delayed, which could result in business interruptions, cessation of service, loss of existing or potential customers and reputational harm. Actual or perceived security vulnerabilities or incidents have resulted in, and may result in additional, claims or litigation and liability or fines, costly and time-intensive notice requirements, governmental inquiry or oversight or a loss of customer confidence, any of whichcouldhave in the past and may in the future harm our business and damage our brand and reputation. Our customers may also adopt security measures to protect their computer systems and their instances of our software from attack and may suffer a cybersecurity breach on their own systems, unrelated to our systems. Even if such breach is unrelated to our security systems, solutions or programs, such breach could cause us reputational harm and require us to incur significant economic and operational consequences to adequately assess and respond to their breach, and to implement additional safeguards designed to protect against future breaches. - While we maintain insurance to cover operational risks, such as cybersecurity risk and technology outages, our insurance may not be sufficient to cover all liability described herein. These risks will likely increase as we expand our hosted
offerings,solutions, integrate ourproducts, services andsolutions and store and process more data. Moreover, delayed sales, lower margins or lost customers resulting from disruptions caused by cyberattacks, data breaches, overly burdensomepreventativepreventive security measures or failure to fully meet information security control certification requirements could materially and adversely affect our financial results, stock price and reputation. - We rely on our direct sales channel and a number of third-party distributors and sales partners to distribute our
products, services andsolutions. The successful management ofsuch third-partythese relationships is a complex, global process. We sell manyproducts, services andsolutions through our direct sales force. Risks associated with this sales channel include challenges related to hiring, retaining and motivating our direct sales force, and substantial amounts of ongoing training for sales representatives. Our business could be harmed if our direct sales expansion efforts do not generate the corresponding efficiencies and revenue we anticipated from such investment. In addition, the loss of key sales employees could impact our customer relationships and future ability to sell to certain accounts covered by such employees. IfMoreover, if our partner and distribution channels are not effective or if we stop or change our partner or distribution channels, we may lose sales opportunities, customers and revenue. We rely on third-party distribution platforms and are subject to changes in pricing structure, terms of service, privacy practices and other policies at the discretion of the platform provider. Any adverse changes to the terms with such third-party distribution platforms which we rely on to distribute ourproducts, services andsolutions may adversely affect our financial results. Additionally, our distribution channels may not continue to market or sell ourproducts, services andsolutions effectively and may favorproducts, services andsolutions of other companies.- We also rely on third-party service providers and technologies to deliver our
products, servicessolutions and business operations and to operate critical business systems, such as cloud-based infrastructure, data center facilities, generative AI, large language models, encryption and authentication technology, company email and other communication channels, and communications with customers. If such third parties are negatively affected, if we fail to effectively develop, manage and maintain our relationships with such third parties, or if we are unable to renew our agreements with them on favorable terms or at all, our expenses could significantly increase, and we and our customers may experience service interruptions. Any disruption or damage to, or failure of our systems generally, including the systems of our third-party platform providers, could result in interruptions in our services and harm our business. Further, interruptions in our services caused by us or our third-party service providers may cause us to issue credits or pay penalties, cause customers to make warranty or other claims against us or to terminate their subscriptions or contracts, and adversely affect our attrition rates and our ability to attract new customers, all of which may adversely affect our financial results. Our business and reputation would also be harmed if our customers and potential customers believe our services are unreliable. - We face various risks associated with
ouroperating as a multinational corporation, and global adverse economic and geopolitical conditions may harm our business and financial condition. - We derive a large portion of our total revenue from, and have significant operations, outside of the United States. As a multinational corporation, we are subject to a number of risks, including from global adverse economic and geopolitical conditions, that are uncertain and beyond our control and that make forecasting
operatingfinancial results and decisions about future investments difficult, such as: - •international and regional economic, political and labor conditions, including any instability or security concerns abroad, such as uncertainty caused by economic sanctions, downturns and recessions, trade disputes, tariffs, armed conflicts and
wars;wars, and epidemics and pandemics like COVID-19; - •changes in laws governing the
freeflow of data acrossinternational borders;borders including into the United States; - •costs, potential liability, delays or loss of sales resulting from trade restrictions imposed by the United States and other countries, as well as trade laws, including but not limited to economic
sanctionssanctions, tariffs and export controls; - Additionally, third parties we do business with and our customers have international operations and are also subject to the above risks. Adverse changes in global economic
conditionsconditions, including, but not limited to recessions or slow economic growth have in the past resulted and may in the future result in our customers’ and business partners’ insolvency, inability to obtain credit to finance or purchase ourproducts, services andsolutions, or a delay in paying or an inability to pay their obligations to us. Other third parties, such as our service providers, suppliers and distributors, may be unable to deliver or be delayed in delivering critical services, products or technologies that we rely on, and our business and reputation may be harmed. Our customers’ spendingraterate, ability to pay and demand for ourproducts, services andsolutions may also be adversely affected by the above risks. If our global sales are reduced, delayed or canceled because of any of the above risks, our revenue may decline. - As of November
29, 2024,28, 2025, our investment portfolio consisted of money market funds, corporate debt securities, U.S. Treasury securities, timedeposits, U.S. agency securitiesdeposits andasset-backed securities.other investments. These investments are subject to credit, liquidity, market, and interest rate risks as well as economic downturns or events that affect global or regional financial markets that may cause the value of our investments to decline, requiring impairment charges, which could adversely affect our financial condition. - Some of our enterprise
offeringssolutions have extended and complex sales cycles, which may increase our costs and make our sales cycles unpredictable. - As we continue to target enterprise customers for certain of our
offerings, including Adobe Experience Cloud in our Digital Experience business and our Enterprise Term License Agreements in our Digital Media business,solutions, we may face increased costs, longer sales cycles, greater competition and less predictability in completing our sales. For our enterprise customers, the evaluation process may be longer and more involved, and require us to invest more in educating our customers about ourproducts, services andsolutions, particularly because the decision to use ourproducts, services andsolutions is often an enterprise-wide decision. We are increasingly offering end-to-end solutions that includecross-cloudgenerative andgenerativeagentic AI capabilities, which have in the past, and may in the future, increase the complexity of technical or contractual assurances or requirements that we or our customersrequirerequire, whether pursuant to regulations or internal policies, as part of the contracting process, leading to extended sales cycles. We may be required to submit more robust proposals, participate in extended proof-of-concept evaluation cycles and engage in more extensive contract negotiations. In addition, our enterprise customers often demand more complex configurations and additional integration services and product features. Adverse macroeconomicconditionsand geopolitical events such as trade disputes and tariffs have caused, and may continue to cause, additional spend scrutiny and delays in our enterprise customers’ purchasingdecisions.decisions, particularly for larger and more complex deals. Due to these factors, we often must devote greater sales support to certain enterprise customers, which increases our costs and time required to complete a sale, without assurance that potential customers will ultimately purchase our solutions. We also may be required to devote more services resources to implementation, which increases our costs, without assurance that customers receiving these services will renew or renew at the same level. Our revenue from enterprise customers may be affected by longer-than-expected sales, contract negotiation and implementation cycles, extended collection cycles, potential deferral of revenue and alternative licensing arrangements. Additionally, our enterprise sales pattern has historically been, and is expected to remain, uneven, where a higher percentage of a quarter’s total sales occur during the final weeks of each quarter, which is common in our industry. - We are, and may in the future become, subject to litigation, regulatory
inquiriesinquiries, investigations and otherclaims,actions, which could result in an unfavorable outcome and have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results ofoperationoperations and cash flows. - We are, and may in the future become, subject to various legal proceedings (including class action lawsuits), claims,
negotiations andnegotiations, regulatoryinquiries and additional claims,inquiries, investigations, enforcement actions andinquiries may arise in the future, such as thoseother actions, including relating to antitrust, consumer protection, data privacy and security,consumer protection,employment practices, product liability and the validity or alleged infringement of third-party intellectual property rights, including patent rights, among others. Such activity has increased over time with evolving global regulatory and enforcement landscapes and as ourproducts, services andsolutions have become more available to, and used by, more enterprises andconsumers.consumers worldwide. For example, there is an increase inenforcementregulatory activity in connection with federal and state consumer protection laws, including some suits which seek civil penalties. Any proceedings, actions, claims or inquiries initiated by or against us, whether successful or not, may be highly time consuming; result in costly litigation, damage awards, consent decrees, injunctive relief or increased costs of business; require us to change our business practices or products; result in negative publicity; require significant amounts of management time; result in the diversion of significant operational resources; or otherwise harm our business and financial results. - Disputes and litigation can be complex and are typically costly and can be disruptive to our business operations by diverting the attention of management and key personnel. For example, third-party intellectual property disputes, including those initiated by patent assertion
entities,entities or competitors, could subject us to significant liabilities, require us to enter into royalty and licensing arrangements on unfavorable terms, prevent us from offering certainproducts, services orsolutions, subject us to injunctions restricting our sales, cause severe disruptions to our operations or the markets in which we compete, or require us to satisfy indemnification commitments with our customers, including contractual provisions under various license arrangements and service agreements. In addition, we have incurred, and may in the future incur, significant costs in acquiring the necessary third-party intellectual property rights for use in our products, in some cases to fulfill contractual obligations with our customers. Any of these occurrences could significantly harm our business. - We are a global company subject to varied and complex laws,
regulationsregulations, government actions and customs, both domestically and internationally. These local, state, federal and international laws and regulations relate to a number of aspects of our business, including trade laws such as import and export controls, anti-boycott, economic sanctions and embargoes, data and transaction processing security, payment card industry data security standards, antitrust and competition, consumer protection, records management, user-generated content hosted on websites we operate, privacy practices, dataresidency, AI regulations,residency and transfer, AI, corporate governance,antitrust and competition,employment practices, immigration, employee and third-party complaints, anti-corruption, conflicts of interest, securitiesregulationsregulations, sustainability and other regulatory requirements affecting trade and investment. The application of these laws and regulations to our business is often unclear and evolving, and may at times conflict. Further, we are subject to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws, which may conflict with local customs and practices in other foreign countries, particularly those with developing economies where it is common to engage in practices that would be prohibited under such laws. We cannot provide assurance that our employees, contractors, agents, business partners and vendors will not take actions in violation of our internal policies, U.S. laws or other applicable international laws. Compliance with the above laws and regulations may involve significant costs or require additional changes to our business practices that result in reduced revenue and profitability. Non-compliance could also result in fines, damages, criminal sanctions against us, our officers or our employees, prohibitions on the conduct of our business and damage to our reputation. - We are subject to global data protection, privacy and security laws, regulations and codes of conduct that relate to our various business units and data processing activities, which may include sensitive, confidential, and personal information. These laws, regulations and codes are increasing in number, expanding in scope, inconsistent across jurisdictions and
aresubject to evolving and differing (sometimes conflicting) interpretations. Government officials and regulators, privacy advocates and class action attorneys are increasingly scrutinizing how companies collect, process, use, store, share and transmit personal data, including the transferring of personal information across international borders. This scrutiny can result in new and shifting interpretations of existing laws, thereby further impacting our business. For example, European data transfers outside the European Economic Area are highly regulated and litigated. The mechanisms that we and many other companies rely upon for European data transfers (for example, Standard Contractual Clauses and the EU - US Data Privacy Framework) are the subject of legal challenge, regulatory interpretation and judicial decisions by the Court of Justice of the European Union. Certain other countries in which we do business have also established specific legal requirements for cross-border transfers of personal information and data localization. If these or other countries implement more restrictive regulations for cross-border data transfers or do not permit data to leave the country of origin, such developments could adversely impact our business and our enterprise customers’ business, our financial condition and our results of operations in those jurisdictions. - Additionally, the General Data Protection Regulation in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom continues to be interpreted by European and UK courts in novel ways leading to shifting requirements, country-specific differences in application and uncertain enforcement priorities. Laws in Asia, such as the Personal Information Protection Law in
ChinaChina, Personal Information Protection Act in Korea and developing privacy laws in India, as well as state laws in the United States on privacy, data and related technologies, such as the California Consumer Privacy Act, the California Privacy Rights Act, the Colorado Privacy Act and the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act, as well as industry self-regulatory codes and regulatory requirements, create additional privacy and security compliance obligations and expand the scope of potential liability, either jointly or severally with our customers and suppliers. Further, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Rules on Cybersecurity Risk Management, Strategy, Governance, and Incident Disclosurerequiresand other expanding global laws require us to make certain disclosures related to material cybersecurity incidents and the reasonably likely impact of such anincident on Form 8-K.incident. Determining whether a cybersecurity incident is notifiable or reportable may not be straightforward and any such mandatory disclosures could be costly and lead to negative publicity, loss of customer confidence in the effectiveness of our security measures, diversion of management’s attention and governmental investigations. While we have invested in readiness to comply with applicable requirements, the dynamic and evolving nature of these laws, regulations and codes, as well as their interpretation byregulatorsregulators, courts andcourts,customers, may affect our ability (and our enterprise customers’ ability) to reach current and prospective customers, to respond to both enterprise and individual customer requests under the laws (such as individual rights of access, correction and deletion of their personal information), to implement our business models effectively and to adequately address disclosure requirements. TheseThe laws, regulations and codes above mayalsoimpact our innovation and business drivers in developing new and emerging technologies (for example, AI and machine learning) and may impact demand for ourofferingssolutions andforce us to bear the burden ofhas resulted in more onerous obligations in ourcontracts.contracts and changes to our business practices, and may require us to bear additional burdensome contractual obligations and make additional changes to our business practices in the future. These changes may impact the duration of customer relationships and result in additional compliance and operational costs, which may adversely impact our business. Perception of ourpractices, products, servicespractices or solutions, even if unfounded, as a violation of individual privacy, data protectionrightsrights, cybersecurity orcybersecurityrelated contractual requirements, subjects us to public criticism, lawsuits, investigations, audits, claims and other proceedings by regulators, industrygroupsgroups, customers or other third parties, all of which could disrupt or adversely impact our business and reputation and expose us to increased liability,finesfines, lost revenue and other punitive measures including prohibition on sales of ourproducts, services orsolutions, restrictive judicialorders andorders, disgorgement ofdata.data or other adverse consequences. Additionally, we collect and store information on behalf of our business customers and if our customers fail to comply with contractual obligations or applicable laws, it could result in litigation or reputational harm to us.- Our patents, trademarks, trade secrets, copyrights and other intellectual property are valuable assets to us. Infringement or misappropriation of such intellectual property could result in lost revenues and ultimately reduce their value. We protect our intellectual property by relying on federal, state and common law rights in the United States and internationally, as well as a variety of administrative procedures and contractual restrictions. Despite our efforts, protecting our intellectual property rights and preventing unauthorized use of our intellectual property are inherently difficult. For instance, we actively combat software piracy, but we continue to lose revenue due to illegal use of our software. Third parties may illegally copy and sell counterfeit versions of our products. To the extent counterfeit installations and sales replace otherwise legitimate ones, our
operatingfinancial results could be adversely affected. We apply for patents and other intellectual property rights in the United States and in foreign countries, but we are not always successful in obtaining patent or other intellectual property protection or in obtaining such protection timely to meet our business needs. Our patents may be invalidated or circumvented. Moreover, due to challenges in detecting patent infringement pertaining to generative AI technologies, it may be more difficult to protect our generative AI and related innovations with patents. Additionally, if we use generative AI in the creation of our sourcecode,code or other materials or inventions, we may not be able to rely oncopyrightcopyrights or patents to protect such intellectual property. Further, the laws of some foreign countries do not provide the same level of intellectual property protection as U.S. laws and courts and could fail to adequately protect our intellectual property rights. If unauthorized disclosure of our source code occurs through security breach,cyber-attackcyber-attack, contributions to open-source projects or otherwise, we could lose future trade secret protection for that source code. Such loss could make it easier for third parties to compete with our products by copying functionality, which could cause us to lose customers and could adversely affect our revenue and operating margins. If we cannot protect our intellectual property against unauthorized copying, use, or other misappropriation, our business could be harmed. - We are a U.S.-based multinational company subject to tax in multiple domestic and foreign tax jurisdictions. Significant judgment is required in determining our current provision for income taxes and deferred tax assets or liabilities. Tax laws in the United States as well as other countries and jurisdictions in which we conduct business are subject to change as new laws are passed and/or new interpretations are made available, which have in the past and may in the future have a material impact on our business. These countries, governmental bodies, such as the European Commission of the European Union, and intergovernmental economic organizations, such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, have made
orand/or could make other unprecedented assertions about how taxation is determined and, in some cases, have proposed or enacted new laws that are contrary to the way in which rules and regulations have historically been interpreted and applied. - Changes in our operating landscape, such as changes in laws or interpretations of tax rules,
couldhave in the past and may in the future adversely affect our effective tax rates and/or cause us to respond by making changes to our business structure, which could adversely affect our operations and financial results. Our future effective tax ratesare likely tomay be unfavorably affected by changes in the tax rates in jurisdictions where our income is earned, changes in jurisdictions in which our profits are determined to be earned and taxed, changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities, changes in or interpretation of tax rules and regulations in the jurisdictions in which we do business, or unexpected negative changes in business and market conditions that could reduce certain tax benefits. An increase in our effective tax rate would reduce our profitability. - We provide
products, services andsolutions, directly and indirectly, to a variety of domestic and foreign government entities, which introduces certain risks and challenges not present in private commercial agreements, including varying governmental budgetingprocesses,processes; changes in governmental administrations and policies; fluctuations due to government spending cuts andshutdowns,shutdowns; and highly competitive and lengthy bidding process that may be subject to politicalinfluence and adherence to complex procurement regulations and other government-specific contractual requirements.influence. Additionally, we are subject to complex regulatory requirements and executive orders, including those related to procurement; export controls; employment; security; and other evolving government-specific contractual requirements. We incur significant up-front time and costs without any assurance that we will win a contract. Operating within a highly regulated industry, we have been and may in the future be subject to audits and investigations relating to our government contracts and any violations could result in termination of contracts and various civil and criminal penalties and administrative sanctions, including payment of fines and suspension or debarment from future government business, as well as harm to our reputation and financial results. We have made, and may continue to make, significant investments to support future sales opportunities in various government sectors, including to obtain various security authorizations and certifications. Such processes are complex, lengthy and can often be delayed. Furthermore, requirements may change, or we may be unable to achieve or sustain one or more government authorizations or certifications, which could affect our ability to sell to government entities until we meet any new or revised requirements. - Our
offeringssolutions are typically subscription-based, pursuant to product and service agreements. We generally recognize revenue from our subscriptionofferingssolutions ratably over the terms of their subscription agreements, which typically range from 1 to 36 months. As a result, most of the subscription revenue we report each quarter is the result of subscription agreements entered into during previous quarters. Lower sales and subscriptions, reduced demand for ourproducts, services andsolutions, and increases in our attrition rate in any given period may not be fully reflected in our results of operations until future periods. Our subscription model could also make it difficult for us to rapidly increase our revenue from subscription-based or hosted services through additional sales in any period, as revenue from new customers will be recognized over the applicable subscription term. Our renewal rates may decline or fluctuate as a result of a number of factors, including our customers’ level of satisfaction, our ability to continue enhancing features and functionality, reliability of ourofferings,solutions, prices of ours and competitors’offerings,solutions, the actual or perceived information security of our systems and services, decreases in the size of our customer base, changes as a result of regulatory or legal requirements, changes in the composition of our customer base and reductions in our customers’ spending levels or declines in customer activity. If our customers do not renew their subscriptions or if they renew on terms less favorable to us, our revenue may decline. Further, such impact on our revenue may not be immediately reflected in our financial results in the period in which our renewal rates changed and may adversely affect our financial results in future periods. If any of our assumptions about revenue from our subscription-basedofferingssolutions prove incorrect, our actual results may suffer and vary from those anticipated. - Our
operatingfinancial results and performance metrics are subject to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates due to the global scope of our business. Geopolitical and economic events, including war, trade disputes, tariffs, economic sanctions and emerging market volatility, and associated uncertainty have caused, and may in the future cause, currencies to fluctuate. - We attempt to mitigate a portion of these foreign currency exchange risks to our
operatingfinancial results through foreign currency hedging based on our judgment of the appropriate trade-offs among risk, opportunity and expense. We regularly review our hedging program and make adjustments that we believe are appropriate. Our hedging activities have not, and may not in the future, offset more than a portion of the adverse financial impact, including on our actual revenue recognized, resulting from unfavorable movement in foreign currency exchange rates, which could adversely affect our financial condition, business performance or results of operations. - Our business relies on our network infrastructure and enterprise apps, internal technology systems and websites. A disruption, infiltration or failure of our systems, data centers or operations, or those of our third-party service providers due to a major earthquake, other natural disasters, including climate-related events (such as
drought,flooding, watersecurity,stress, heat waves,cold waves, wildfirescyclones andpoor air quality),wildfires), power shutoff or loss, telecommunications failure, cloud service provider outages, epidemic, pandemic, war, terrorist attack or other catastrophic event, could cause interruptions to oursystemssystems, solutions and business operations, damage to critical infrastructure, loss of intellectual property, data security breaches and data loss. Our corporate headquarters, significant research and development activity, certain of our data centers and other critical business operations are in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Salt Lake Valley Area, both of which are near major earthquake faults. Exposure to climate-related events that may harm our business may continue to increase in intensity. A catastrophic event, particularly one that may disrupt our data centers or our critical activities, could prevent us from conducting normal business operations and providing ourproducts, services andsolutions, which could adversely affect our business. A catastrophic event could negatively impact a country or region in which we sell and, in turn, decrease demand for ourproducts, services andsolutions, which could negatively impact our business. - Our stock price
may behas been volatile and your investment could lose value. - •changes in annualized recurring revenue, unearned revenue, remaining performance obligations and revenue recognized at a point in time, all of which may impact actual or implied growth rates;
- •variations in our or our competitors’
results of operations,financial and business performance, changes in the competitive landscape generally and developments in our industry; •general•adverse economic, political or market conditions; and- For example, generative artificial intelligence technologies enable users of all skill levels to create and provide new ways of marketing, creating content and interacting with documents, which could significantly disrupt industries in which we operate and our existing products, services and solutions and our business may be harmed if we fail to invest or adapt.
- Our numerous competitors range in size from diversified global companies with significant sales and research and development resources, broad brand awareness, long operating histories or access to large customer bases to small companies whose specialized focuses may allow them to more easily and effectively deploy technical, marketing and financial resources. Further, our future success depends on our continued ability to effectively appeal to businesses and consumers. Our competitors or other third parties may incorporate AI into their offerings more successfully and efficiently than we do and achieve greater and faster adoption, which could impair our ability to compete effectively and adversely affect our business and financial results. Other companies have, or in the future may obtain, proprietary rights that would prevent, limit or interfere with our ability to make, use or sell our AI offerings. Further, we expect AI offerings to be highly competitive and rapidly evolving. For example, we face increasing competition from companies offering generative AI capabilities, including text-to-image, text-to-video and multi-modal offerings that compete directly with our creative offerings.
- •inability to achieve the financial and strategic goals of the investment or acquisition;
- If we are unable to develop, manage and maintain critical third-party relationships, such as our sales, partner and distribution channels, suppliers and service providers, our revenue and business may be adversely affected.
- •tax laws (including U.S. taxes on foreign subsidiaries);
- •changes in, or impositions of, legislative or regulatory requirements, including antitrust and competition regulations;
- Since the sales cycles for our enterprise offerings are multi-phased and complex, it is often unpredictable when a given sales cycle will close.
- Several other countries, including but not limited to the United States, China, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong and Japan, have also established specific legal requirements for cross-border transfers of personal information and certain countries have also established specific legal requirements for data localization (such as where personal data must remain stored in the country).
- Accordingly, amounts reported as annualized recurring revenue, a performance metric which we measure at currency rates that are set at the beginning of each fiscal year and held constant throughout the year, may vary from actual revenue recognized in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States.
- Climate-related catastrophic events that may harm our business are also increasing in frequency and severity.
- Laws, regulations and policies relating to environmental, social, and governance are expanding globally. We may be subject to additional climate-related regulations and reporting requirements in the future, as well as changing market dynamics and stakeholder expectations regarding climate change and our environmental impacts. Compliance with such regulations, investments in our environmental, social and governance commitments, may involve significant costs and negatively impact our business, financial condition and results of operations. Additionally, we may experience reputational harm from our actual or perceived failure to meet our environmental, social and governance commitments.
- The occurrence of an epidemic or a pandemic, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, has had, and may in the future, have an adverse effect on our operating results. The extent to which epidemics and pandemics impact our financial condition or results of operations will depend on many factors outside of our control and whether there is a material impact on the businesses or productivity of our customers, employees, suppliers and other partners. A global pandemic may also intensify the other risks described in this Part I, Item 1A of this report.
- •other events, such as significant litigation and regulatory actions and media and social media scrutiny.
- In addition, approximately 50% of our employees are located outside the United States. Accordingly, we are exposed to changes in laws governing our employee relationships in various U.S. and foreign jurisdictions, including laws and regulations regarding wage and hour requirements, fair labor standards, employee data privacy, unemployment tax rates, workers’ compensation rates, citizenship
requirementsrequirements, immigration and payroll and other taxes, which likely would have a direct impact on our operating costs. - As of November
29, 2024,28, 2025, we had$5.65$6.15 billion in senior unsecured notes outstanding and a $3 billion commercial paper program with no amounts outstanding. We also had a $1.5 billion senior unsecured revolving credit agreement, which was undrawn. This debt or future additional indebtedness may adversely affect our financial condition and future financial results by, among other things: - •shortfalls or declines in our results or shortfalls, changes to estimates, recommendations or expectations in guidance we provide or provided by financial analysts about our revenue, margins, earnings, annualized recurring revenue, growth rates or other key performance metrics;