Through Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, its broad suite of digital marketing cloud solutions, and its numerous other products and services, many of which benefit from both network effects and high switching costs, Adobe has cleverly positioned itself as a toll road over which most businesses must pass. Furthermore, the company’s shift to a more subscription-and-cloud-based model, which results in small monthly payments instead of large one-time-upgrade payments, and the rapidly-expanding value of Adobe’s growing network of services have made this toll feel like much more of a win-win for customers. We believe this dynamic will allow for consistent price increases in its subscription renewals. Additionally, we believe Adobe will continue to benefit both from long-term growth in global GDP as well as the continued migration of businesses to the cloud. Remarkably, despite its long runway for growth opportunities, it is likely that very little capital will need to be reinvested to achieve this growth, increasing the earnings multiple investors should be willing to pay for the business.
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