Adobe, maker of your favorite products to pirate, is shutting down for a week, to boost profitability. Adobe has plans for a third shutdown of its North American operations later this year, after this shutdown follows the first from April. Adobe of course is already known as the odd company that does not operated between Christmas and New Years, a bit like a Middle School. Of course, the company is not releasing any data on this shutdown, so all we can do is speculate.
Here is a start, Adobe is already profitable. For the quarter ending on May 29 the company was 126 million dollars profitable. The shutdowns hardly make sense considering that, unless they are timed in the development cycle so perfectly that they help give developers a rest. But in a company of Adobes size, you can bet that developers are harder to find than at your local bootstrapped startup.
Apparently Adobe’s management has found the formula: the minimum number of employee hours to still maximize profit. In the current economic climate, it is hard to blame them.
–Update–
Industry veteran @Guze has pointed out that shutdowns between Christmas and New Years are quite common in the Valley. The author apologizes for forgetting this.
