Adobe is buying Livefyre so brands can have more free content

Adobe has acquired marketing startup Livefyre for an undisclosed sum, the two companies announced on Tuesday.

The reason for the deal is the same reason a lot of stuff happens on the Internet: Content. Livefyre, which was initially known for its technology that powers internet comments, now runs a marketing business for big brand clients that focuses on user-generated content, posts and videos created by regular people on sites like Facebook and Twitter and YouTube.

Livefyre’s technology lets brand marketers sift through those posts, find the ones that either mention their brand or simply align with their marketing message, and then use them for their marketing campaigns on social platforms or even on TV or email.

Adobe, which also runs a big brand marketing business that brought in roughly $1.3 billion in revenue last year, wants to help its clients like Hyatt Hotels or Comcast do the same thing for their apps and websites. So it bought Livefyre to help with that.

“The demand on growing content continues to increase and this is the platform that allows us to source that content in a very cost effective way,” Aseem Chandra, VP of Adobe’s Experience Manager business, told Re/code in an interview.

Livefyre CEO Jordan Kretchmer said that none of his company’s products, including the liveblogging service that grew out of its acquisition of Storify back in September of 2013, are shutting down. They will all be integrated into existing Adobe marketing services, he said.

Livefyre will, however, undergo a “minor restructuring” as often happens during acquisitions to eliminate redundant positions, Kretchmer said. But the “majority” of Livefyre employees will soon be Adobe employees.

The deal is expected to close “within the next months,” according to a press release.