Adobe Rejects Quark Buyout Offer

Quark, Inc. made public today its desire to purchase Adobe Systems, Inc. for an undisclosed sum. The privately held Quark made an offer to Adobe management last week. Adobe refused the offer; as a result, Quark is now hoping to open a new dialog with Adobe or pursue the possibility of a hostile takeover. Although Adobe is a much larger company – with 1997 revenues of $911.9 million compared to Quark’s $200 million – its stock is at a yearly low, and the company is undergoing restructuring to offset losses. Quark, maker of the desktop publishing application QuarkXPress, said that it would likely divest Adobe of PageMaker, QuarkXPress’s main competition, as well as other products that could raise red flags with industry regulators.