Bruce Chizen is stepping down as chief executive of Adobe. Chizen, who has been boss of Adobe since 2000, will be replaced by Shantanu Narayen, currently president and COO.

Narayen takes over 1 December, but Chizen will remain on the board of directors until the end of fiscal year 2008.

Chizen told reporters he wanted to take a break and have a think about what he wanted to do. AP quoted him: "As much as I love Adobe products and employees, I didn't want to find myself at 55 saying, 'Gee, I wish I had done something else besides Adobe'. The role of CEO is all-consuming.".

Chairmen of the board Chuck Geschke and John Warnock thanked Chizen for 14 years' service at Adobe and said: "Bruce Chizen's vision has helped transform Adobe from a company that was known mainly for its popular design products into one of the largest and most diversified software companies in the world."

Adobe also said yesterday it expected results for the fourth quarter to be at the upper end of targets of between $860m and $890m and that it should hit revenue growth of 18 per cent for the year.

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