Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE) said on 3 September 2026 that Anil Chakravarthy will become president and chief executive on 1 December 2026, completing an Adobe CEO succession plan first flagged in March.
Shantanu Narayen, chief executive for 18 years, will move to executive chair the same day, the company said in a statement carried by Business Wire.
Who is taking over
Chakravarthy currently runs Adobe’s Customer Experience Orchestration business and worldwide field operations, according to CNBC. He joined Adobe in January 2020 after serving as chief executive of Informatica, and was promoted to president of Adobe’s Digital Experience business in December 2021, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
He will also join Adobe’s board on 1 December. Narayen will work with him through the handover, the company said. Reuters reported that Frank Calderoni, Adobe’s lead independent director, chaired the special committee that ran the roughly six-and-a-half-month search, as first reported by Reuters.
A search that followed a rocky spring
Narayen first signalled his intention to step down in March 2026, after 18 years running the company, in a disclosure filed with the SEC. Adobe shares fell roughly 7-7.8% after-hours at the time, according to Trefis and Yahoo Finance data, as investors weighed what a leadership change would mean for a company under pressure from AI-native rivals.
The turnover has not been confined to the top job. Adobe’s chief financial officer, Dan Durn, left in June 2026 to join Marvell Technologies, according to Yahoo Finance, adding a second senior departure to the succession story even as the board worked through its CEO search.
Financial backdrop looks solid
The change comes despite steady growth in the underlying business. Adobe’s quarterly revenue has risen in every period since early 2024, from $5.18bn in the first quarter of that year to $6.62bn in the quarter ended 29 May 2026, according to filings with the SEC. Net income has climbed alongside it, reaching $1.71bn in the most recent quarter against $620m two years earlier.
Diluted earnings per share moved from $1.36 in the first quarter of 2024 to $4.25 in the quarter ended 29 May 2026, filings show, a trajectory that has not stopped the stock’s slide this year. Shares closed at $280.76 on 3 September, down 1.9% on the day but still up 4.6% over the preceding 20 trading days, trading between $251.82 and $293.54 in that window, according to consolidated exchange data.
Positioning ahead of the announcement
Trading volume on the day of the announcement ran 32% above the 20-day average. Short-sale activity had also been building: FINRA’s daily short-volume ratio for Adobe climbed from 0.551 on 20 August to 0.728 on 2 September, the day before the announcement, according to FINRA data.
Narayen was first named president and chief executive effective 1 December 2007, according to a filing from that year, making his tenure almost exactly 19 years by the time Chakravarthy takes over. The new arrangement mirrors that structure in one respect: Chakravarthy’s appointment, like Narayen’s before it, takes effect on 1 December.
What Chakravarthy inherits
The incoming chief executive takes charge of a company with rising revenue and profit but a share price that has struggled to reflect it, as investors question whether Adobe’s creative and marketing software franchises can hold ground against newer, AI-native challengers. The Wall Street Journal framed the appointment as arriving squarely amid that debate, in its report on the leadership change published on 3 September.
Adobe’s third-quarter results, along with any early remarks from Chakravarthy on strategy, are likely to be the next markers investors watch as the December handover approaches.
This article is for information only and is not investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any asset. Markets move quickly; figures are correct as sourced at the time of writing. Always do your own research before making financial decisions.
