Bloomberg published a brief item yesterday suggesting Adobe was in late-stage talks to acquire Synthesia, the enterprise AI video platform, at a valuation of around $4 billion. Both companies have since issued statements that don’t quite deny the report.
What was said
Adobe’s spokesperson: “We don’t comment on speculation.” Synthesia’s CEO Victor Riparbelli posted on LinkedIn that “Synthesia remains independent and focused on building”. Neither statement constitutes a denial — Riparbelli’s wording in particular leaves room for “we’re independent today, we’ll see about tomorrow”.
Why it might be true
Adobe has been visibly expanding its AI video footprint. Firefly Video shipped in beta last quarter. Premiere’s Generative Extend feature launched in March. A Synthesia acquisition would give Adobe the avatar/talking-head category in one move — something Firefly Video doesn’t currently do well. Synthesia’s enterprise customer base (50%+ of the Fortune 100) overlaps neatly with Creative Cloud Enterprise.
Why it might not be
$4B is rich for Synthesia. Their last round (December 2024) valued them at $2.1B. Tripling in eighteen months is possible in this market but would represent Adobe’s largest software acquisition since Figma — which famously didn’t close. Regulators have not gotten more permissive since.
We’ll keep an eye on this. Both companies have promised updates “if circumstances change”.
