Digital experience provider Adobe is set to acquire brand visibility platform Semrush in an all-cash transaction for $12.00 per share, representing a total equity value of approximately $1.9 billion.

​“Brand visibility is being reshaped by generative AI, and brands that don’t embrace this new opportunity risk losing relevance and revenue. With Semrush, we’re unlocking GEO for marketers as a new growth channel alongside their SEO, driving more visibility, customer engagement and conversions across the ecosystem,” said Anil Chakravarthy, president of Adobe’s Digital Experience Business.

​Elsewhere, Forrester announced its DXP Wave 2025 with Optimizely, Adobe, Salesforce, and Sitecore leading the way, with the likes of Contentstack and Acquia listed as Strong Performers.

Featured Stories

• Announcing The Forrester Wave™: Digital Experience Platforms, Q4 2025: “Optimizely leans into experimentation-led personalization; Adobe’s Experience Platform is orchestrated with precision; Salesforce blends CRM depth with conversational interfaces; Sitecore showcases agentic flows that guide content and conversion.”

• Commerce Operations Foundation Launches Order Network eXchange: "Our goal is to build commerce infrastructure that's as adaptive and connected as the AI shaping demand. The onX standard gives the industry a common operational language so orders can move with precision, transparency, and at the speed of AI.”

• Optimizely Named a Leader in Digital Experience Platforms by Leading Independent Research Firm: “Opal brings the vision of personalized experiences at scale to life, making it faster and more cost-effective for marketers to create and optimize digital experiences that cater to both humans and bots.”

• Contentstack Earns Highest Possible Scores for Vision and Innovation Criteria in Latest Digital Experience Platform Evaluation: “The momentum around our platform is undeniable, and we believe this recognition confirms we’re standing right at the threshold of what's next.”

Stories that caught our eye

1. Elastic Path Announces General Availability of the Developer MCP Server: A purpose-built developer tool that enables rapid scaffolding of storefront components.

2. Verndale Acquires Fishtank: The acquisition aims to expand Verndale’s Sitecore expertise.

3. 42% of Consumers Trust AI Summaries Without Clicking: Results of Optimizely’s latest Black Friday report.

4. Progress Launches Agentic RAG for Sitefinity: Aiming to provide dynamic AI-driven web content.

The word on the street…

1. [LinkedIn]: The ‘D’ in “DXP” stands for delusional: Brightspot CRO Warren Schuman critiques the DXP and composable movements and explains why Brightspot is instead focused on providing a leading CMS.

2. [LinkedIn]: The MACH monolith 2026: Developer Experience Lead at Contenstack Tim Benniks explains that composability now has less to do with picking tools and more to do with handling complexity, governance, and long-term cost.