America’s black billionaire Robert F. Smith has overtaken Nigeria’s Adenuga as the Second Richest Black billionaire in the World
Black billionaire Robert F. Smith not long ago sold a cloud-service company to Adobe for a whopping $4.7 billion. the deal shot him up forbes richest black billionaires list.
Brad Rencher, executive vice president and general manager, Digital Experience, Adobe, in a released statement, had this to say about the acquisition “The imperative for marketers across all industries is a laser focus on providing relevant, personalized and engaging experiences. The acquisition of Marketo widens Adobe’s lead in customer experience across B2C and B2B and puts Adobe Experience Cloud at the heart of all marketing.”
According to reports by Forbes, Smith’s company, private equity firm Vista Equity, acquired the cloud-sharing service Marketo in May 2016 for $1.8 billion. The service market revenue grew to over $100 million in just three years.
Forbes estimates that Smith’s company will be receiving $3 billion in profits for the next two years from the sale of the service. With this kind of figure, this becomes the “biggest realized profit from a single company in the private equity firm’s 18-year
history .”
The Marketo will be incorporated by the leading provider of graphics and video editing software, into its Adobe Experience Cloud platform, making it possible for the company to “offer an unrivaled set of solutions for delivering transformative customer experiences across industries and companies of all sizes.”
Marketo CEO Steve Lucas, said in a statement, “Adobe and Marketo both share an unwavering belief in the power of content and data to drive business results. Marketo delivers the leading B2B marketing engagement platform for the modern marketer, and there’s no better home for Marketo to continue to rapidly innovate than Adobe.”
Smith who is Vista’s founder and CEO is reported to be a former investment banker for Goldman Sachs. He has made several acquisitions that has continued to help grow the company immensely. His professional and keen eye in business has made it possible for him to continue growing higher and higher in the industry.
Currently Smith is ranked No. 226 on Forbes’ 400 richest list with a net worth of $3.3 billion.”, he is the second richest black billionaire in the world. Nigeria’s Dangote is still first.
