Adobe names new CEO

Software maker Adobe Systems Inc. has announced that it is replacing its current CEO, Bruce Chizen, with Shantanu Narayen effective Dec. 1.

The MarketWatch web site elaborates further on how the change will occur. "Chizen, who has been Adobe's CEO since 2000, will serve the remainder of his term on Adobe's board of directors through the spring of 2008 and continue in a strategic advisory capacity through the end of fiscal year 2008," the company said in a prepared statement.

Chizen joined the company in 1994 and is heralding Narayen as a worthy successor to him for the position. During his tenure as CEO, in 2005, Adobe purchased Macromedia, which made the company a leader in design software.

"As any CEO will attest, the job of chief executive is all-consuming," Mr. Chizen said in a call with analysts. "Quite simply, I'm at a point in my life where I would like to take a step back and think about what I would like to do in the next stage of my life... It's been a great run for Adobe, and we continue to have tremendous potential," he said in an interview.

Adobe was founded in 1982, and it sells web site designing software. According to the PCWorld web site, "The company is now beginning to launch new products to let Web developers build mobile services for cellphones and software that sits on a PC desktop but interacts with the Web."