Bangalore: After freezing salaries, bonuses and various compensation plans, Adobe, the world's biggest maker of graphic-design software has finally shut down its operations in North America this week, to cut down operating costs. In December, the company had fired eight percent of the workforce to help rein in costs during the economic slump, but could not overcome the losses.

Adobe official said, "Operation has been shut down as the recession crimped sales of the company by big margin." In the second quarter of the current fiscal , the company reported 21 percent fall in its sales after customers held off upgrading to the latest version of Adobe's Creative Suite programs, which account for about 60 percent of revenue.


After the announcement yesterday, Adobe advanced 62 cents to $28.62 yesterday on the NASDAQ stock market. The stock of Adobe went up by 34 percent this year.

Adobe had already informed its employees in March that it would impose one week closure in the second, third and fourth quarters. "Staff will take paid vacation time during closure time," said the official.

According to the Goldman Sachs Group, "Worldwide spending on information-technology (IT) products will shrink nine percent this year as the economy contracts."