Adobe Appoints Anil Chakravarthy as CEO as Shantanu Narayen Departs after 18 Years

SentiSense · Published Sep 6, 2026, 8:45 AM ET · Updated Sep 6, 2026, 9:48 PM ET

Adobe named Anil Chakravarthy president and chief executive on September 3, effective December 1, 2026, with Shantanu Narayen moving to executive chair after more than 18 years leading the company. Shares fell 6.7% the following session, a decline compounded by the separate departure of creativity chief David Wadhwani. The change lands four days before Adobe reports fiscal third-quarter results, with analysts split on how AI-native rivals affect the Creative Cloud outlook.

Adobe named Anil Chakravarthy president and chief executive on September 3, with the change taking effect December 1, 2026. Shantanu Narayen, who has run the company for more than 18 years, becomes executive chair rather than leaving outright, so the handover is a scheduled three-month transition rather than an immediate exit. Adobe framed the choice around defending its creative franchise against AI-native rivals.

The market did not take it well. ADBE fell as much as 7% the following session and closed down 6.7% at $266.51 on September 4, per 247WallSt. The selloff was compounded by a second departure the same week: David Wadhwani, who ran Adobe's creativity and productivity business and was widely read as the internal favorite for the top job, is also leaving. Two senior exits at once is a harder story for investors to price than a single planned succession.

Chakravarthy is an internal promotion with an enterprise pedigree. He currently runs Adobe's customer experience orchestration business and worldwide field operations, joined about seven years ago, and before that was chief executive of Informatica. That background points toward a data and enterprise-software emphasis rather than a creative-tools one, which is the strategic bet the board appears to be making. No CEO-level compensation package has been disclosed yet; his most recent disclosed pay, as president in fiscal 2025, was $800,000 in base salary plus $15.9 million in stock awards.

The near-term test arrives fast. Adobe reports fiscal third-quarter results after the close on September 10, four days from now, which means the new leadership narrative and the numbers land in the same week. Sell-side positioning going in is cautious: Stifel reiterated Hold with a $200 target on September 4 and Morgan Stanley is Underweight at $240, both arguing that AI-native tools could erode Creative Cloud subscription revenue, while RBC Capital raised its target to $315 on September 2, before the announcement. One Seeking Alpha contributor has separately argued the recent share recovery is a dead-cat bounce. What to watch is whether guidance addresses the AI-competition question directly, and whether Adobe details how Chakravarthy's remit differs from Narayen's.

Related Stocks

ADBE