Applications
Adobe signs multi-year distribution agreement with Google
MUMBAI: Adobe Systems Inc. has announced the signing of a multi-year agreement with Google Inc. to distribute the Google Toolbar with various Adobe products over the life of the deal. As a part of the agreement, Adobe and Google today will launch availability of the Google Toolbar with downloads of Adobe‘s Macromedia Shockwave Player. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
The Google Toolbar will now be offered as part of the Shockwave Player installation process for Internet Explorer on Windows. Under the terms of the agreement, the Google Toolbar will also be offered as part of other Adobe product installations in the future, states an official release.
With over 200 million downloads to date, the Macromedia Shockwave Player is the Web standard for powerful multimedia playback. Available for free, the Shockwave Player allows users to view interactive Web content such as games, business presentations, entertainment, and advertisements from a Web browser. Hundreds of thousands of Shockwave Players are downloaded every day, and Shockwave Player is installed on more than 55 percent of Internet-enabled desktops. Additional information is available at www.adobe.com/products/shockwaveplayer.
The Google Toolbar is a free download that adds a Google search box to a Web browser, so users can access Google search capabilities from any Website. The Toolbar also includes innovative features that make browsing more efficient — such as instant suggestions as you type in the search box, a spellchecker, and a pop-up blocker. Users can also personalise the toolbar by adding buttons for their favorite sites.
“As leaders in our respective market categories, it‘s fitting for Adobe and Google to work together to improve the ways customers engage with ideas and information,” says Adobe president & COO Shantanu Narayen. “Our customers will benefit from the power and convenience of the Google Toolbar, and the popularity and reach of Adobe technology gives Google even broader exposure to a growing base of consumers. We expect the agreement to represent significant revenue to Adobe over a period of years.”
“Adobe customers are some of the most savvy, enthusiastic consumers of web content, and we think they‘ll love the fact that Google Toolbar will let them take the power of Google search with them anywhere on the Web,” says Google‘s Omid Kordestani . “Adobe and Google are teaming up to help users more easily and quickly find the ever-increasing sources of information that are important to them.”
Applications
Canva acquires animation and AI startups Cavalry and MangoAI
The deals strengthen Canva’s push into enterprise and AI-led design workflows
AUSTRALIA: Global visual communication platform Canva has stepped up its acquisition drive, buying UK-based 2D animation platform Cavalry and US-based AI startup MangoAI to deepen its AI-powered creative stack.
Cavalry, whose tools are used by brands including Amazon, Meta, Google and Netflix, will strengthen Canva’s motion design capabilities. The deal builds on Canva’s 2024 acquisition of Affinity, which has crossed four million downloads since launch. With Cavalry, Canva now counts seven Europe-based acquisitions, underscoring its global expansion strategy.
MangoAI, an early-stage startup focused on video advertising optimisation, will integrate its reinforcement learning systems into Canva AI. The move aims to enable brands to generate personalised marketing content in real time, cutting production cycles while improving campaign performance. MangoAI co-founder Vinith Misra will join Canva as reinforcement learning lead in its research lab.
Canva co-founder and chief operating officer Cliff Obrecht said the acquisitions reflect the company’s ambition to make professional-grade creative tools more accessible without sidelining human creativity. The goal, he said, is to bring everything from vector to motion design into a single, integrated suite.
The company now reports 265 million active users, including 31 million paid subscribers, and $4 billion in annualised revenue, up 36 per cent year on year. The latest buys further position Canva against rivals such as Adobe and Apple’s Creator Studio as it pushes deeper into enterprise workflows.
Canva head of pro design marketing Liam Fisher, said AI is intended to act as a creative assistant rather than a replacement, reinforcing the primacy of craft and individual design judgement.
