• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, December 11, 2014

Adobe Systems announced in its fourth-quarter earnings report Thursday plans to plunk down $800 million in cash to acquire Fotolia, a stock photo site which hosts 34 million images and videos.

Founded in 2004, privately held Fotolia is owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P., TA Associates and management. Fotolia operates in 23 countries and has Web sites in 14 languages. The company has offices in New York, Paris and Berlin.

Adobe will integrate Fotolia into Adobe Creative Cloud, but will operate the company as a standalone stock service, accessible to anyone. The company's commitment to stock photos and publishing dates back to 1994, when it acquired page layout software company Aldus, known for its PageMaker.

David Wadhwani, senior vice president of digital media at Adobe, believes the acquisition of Fotolia will reinforce Creative Cloud's role for designers. He believes it will become a leading marketplace for the creative community to access images, videos, fonts and creative talent.

Adobe reported revenue of $1.07 billion for the quarter ending Nov. 28. In its earnings report, Adobe also revealed Adobe Creative Cloud now has more than 3.45 million paid members.