U.S. antitrust regulators have approved Adobe Systems Inc's deal to buy web analytics firm Omniture Inc, the Federal Trade Commission said on Tuesday.

Adobe, which announced the deal on September 15, hopes the acquisition will give it a new stream of revenue that is less sensitive to an economic downturn than its Photoshop and Acrobat products.

Companies use Omniture's software to analyze how consumers use websites and to target their ads better. It is the biggest provider of such services, competing with Google Inc and other smaller players.

The approval was announced in a listing of okayed deals that the FTC puts out several times a week.

Adobe, whose software competes with products from Microsoft Corp and Apple Inc, agreed to pay $21.50 per share in cash for Omniture, putting the deal at about $1.7 billion, based on 77.05 million outstanding shares as of early August.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

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