Adobe to lay off 750 staff - Updated

Multimedia software company Adobe is to lay off 750 staff in a restructuring that will cost the company up to US$94 million in severance packages.

In a statement, the company says the layoffs are part of a realignment towards the ‘explosive growth categories’ of digital media and digital marketing.

Shantanu Narayen, president and CEO of Adobe, says in a statement that Adobe’s mission is to ‘produce the world’s content and maximise the impact of that content’.

"Adobe is doubling down in the digital media and digital marketing categories, markets rich with opportunities for innovation and growth,” Narayen says.

The cost of the move has forced the company to adjust its earnings forecast from between 41 and 50 cents per share to between 30 and 38 cents per share, causing its share price to drop.

Update: Adobe exec Danny Winokur has posted an entry on the company blog stating that Adobe will cease to develop Flash player for mobile devices following the release of Flash Player 11.1.

The move will come as a blow for makers of Android devices, who tout the ability to run Flash as one of their core advantages over devices operating on Apple's iOS platform.

"Our future work with Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores," Winokur says.

"We will no longer continue to develop Flash player in the browser to work with new mobile device configurations."