Despite all of the initial backlash and continued tongue-lashing in regard to Creative Cloud, the numbers keep rolling in bigger and bigger in favor of Adobe. Each new quarter has seen Adobe’s revenue rise, one eye-watering number after the next. The new reports show Adobe’s record revenue barrier has been broken again, and this time over the $2billion mark. Last quarter is was $1.84 and this quarter it’s $2.08 billion. That’s billion with a capital ‘B’.

“Adobe’s outstanding growth is driven by enabling our customers to be more creative, work smarter and transform their businesses through our relentless focus on delivering innovation and intelligence across our solutions,” – Shantanu Narayen, president and CEO, Adobe.

Here are the details as per the release:

Thursday, March 15, 2018 4:05 pm EDT | San Jose, California – Adobe (Nasdaq:ADBE) today reported strong financial results for its first quarter fiscal year 2018 ended March 2, 2018.

Financial Highlights

  • Adobe achieved record quarterly revenue of $2.08 billion in its first quarter of fiscal year 2018, which represents 24 percent year-over-year revenue growth.
  • Diluted earnings per share was $1.17 on a GAAP-basis, and $1.55 on a non-GAAP basis.
  • Digital Media segment revenue was $1.46 billion, with Creative revenue growing to $1.23 billion and Document Cloud achieving revenue of $231 million.
  • Digital Media Annualized Recurring Revenue (“ARR”) grew to $5.72 billion exiting the quarter, a quarter-over-quarter increase of $336 million. Creative ARR grew to $5.07 billion, and Document Cloud ARR grew to $647 million.
  • Digital Experience segment revenue was $554 million, which represents 16 percent year-over-year growth.
  • Operating income grew 50 percent and net income grew 46 percent year-over-year on a GAAP-basis; operating income grew 43 percent and net income grew 64 percent year-over-year on a non-GAAP basis.
  • Cash flow from operations was $990 million, and deferred revenue grew 25 percent year-over-year to approximately $2.57 billion.
  • Adobe repurchased approximately 1.6 million shares during the quarter, returning $301 million of cash to stockholders.

A reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP results is provided at the end of this press release and on Adobe’s website.

While this is all great for Adobe (who has just announced a price hike for CC), it begs the question: Where is the money going?

To the shareholders, clearly, which would be fine if the company was evolving and returning advancement to the public, but it’s hard to see that. Lightroom, whilst certainly improved is no longer the only game in town and still second tier in many measures of performance, including raw processing.

If you’re looking for alternatives check out the following article, and then have a look at the numbers below from 2016 to see just how much revenue has grown and at what pace.

Top Alternatives for Adobe Creative Suite

Adobe’s First Quarter Financial Highlights

  • Adobe achieved record quarterly revenue of $1.38 billion, representing year-over-year growth of 25 percent.
  • Diluted earnings per share were $0.50 on a GAAP-basis, and $0.66 on a non-GAAP basis.
  • Digital Media segment revenue grew by 33 percent year-over-year to a record $932 million, with Creative revenue growing 44 percent year-over-year to a record $733 million.
  • Strong Creative Cloud adoption drove Digital Media Annualized Recurring Revenue (“ARR”) to $3.13 billion exiting the quarter, an increase of $246 million.
  • Adobe Marketing Cloud achieved strong bookings growth, and record revenue of $377 million that represents year-over-year growth of 21 percent.
  • Year-over-year operating income grew 78 percent, and net income grew 200 percent on a GAAP-basis; operating income and net income both grew 48 percent on a non-GAAP basis.
  • Cash flow from operations was $498 million, and deferred revenue grew to $1.61 billion.
  • The company repurchased approximately 1.5 million shares during the quarter, returning $133 million of cash to stockholders.

Anyone interested in more information on this can find the full release over on the Adobe Investor Relations website.