Adobe to buy Semrush for .9 billion, sending marketing platform's shares up 70%

Adobe to buy Semrush for $1.9 billion, sending marketing platform’s shares up 70%

Published

3 days ago

November 19, 2025

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Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen speaks during an interview with CNBC on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange on Feb. 20, 2024.

Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters

Adobe said Wednesday that it reached a deal to acquire search engine marketing platform Semrush for $1.9 billion to boost its tools for marketers in the age of artificial intelligence.

Semrush shares skyrocketed more than 74%, while Adobe fell about 2%.

The design software firm said it will pay $12 a share for Semrush in an all-cash transaction. The deal is expected to close during the first half of 2026.

Semrush, which offers search engine optimization tools to marketers, went public in 2021. Its biggest customers include Amazon and TikTok. Shares closed Tuesday at $6.76.

Adobe said the company offers necessary search engine and marketing tools to help brands engage and grow customers, especially in the AI era.

“Brand visibility is being reshaped by generative AI, and brands that don’t embrace this new opportunity risk losing relevance and revenue,” said president of Adobe’s digital experience business Anil Chakravarthy said in a release.

Figure AI sued by whistleblower who warned that startup’s robots could ‘fracture a human skull’

Published

11 hours ago

November 21, 2025

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$Figure AI sued by whistleblower who warned that startup's robots could 'fracture a human skull'$

Startup Figure AI is developing general-purpose humanoid robots.

Figure AI

Figure AI, an Nvidia-backed developer of humanoid robots, was sued by the startup’s former head of product safety who alleged that he was wrongfully terminated after warning top executives that the company’s robots “were powerful enough to fracture a human skull.”

Robert Gruendel, a principal robotic safety engineer, is the plaintiff in the suit filed Friday in a federal court in the Northern District of California. Gruendel’s attorneys describe their client as a whistleblower who was fired in September, days after lodging his “most direct and documented safety complaints.”

The suit lands two months after Figure was valued at $39 billion in a funding round led by Parkway Venture Capital. That’s a 15-fold increase in valuation from early 2024, when the company raised a round from investors including Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, and Microsoft.

In the complaint, Gruendel’s lawyers say the plaintiff warned Figure CEO Brett Adcock and Kyle Edelberg, chief engineer, about the robot’s lethal capabilities, and said one “had already carved a ¼-inch gash into a steel refrigerator door during a malfunction.”

The complaint also says Gruendel warned company leaders not to “downgrade” a “safety road map” that he had been asked to present to two prospective investors who ended up funding the company.

Gruendel worried that a “product safety plan which contributed to their decision to invest” had been “gutted” the same month Figure closed the investment round, a move that “could be interpreted as fraudulent,” the suit says.

The plaintiff’s concerns were “treated as obstacles, not obligations,” and the company cited a “vague ‘change in business direction’ as the pretext” for his termination, according to the suit.

Gruendel is seeking economic, compensatory and punitive damages and demanding a jury trial.

Figure didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Nor did attorneys for Gruendel.

The humanoid robot market remains nascent today, with companies like Tesla and Boston Dynamics pursuing futuristic offerings, alongside Figure, while China’s Unitree Robotics is preparing for an IPO. Morgan Stanley said in a report in May that adoption is “likely to accelerate in the 2030s” and could top $5 trillion by 2050.

Read the filing here: