Software

Spotify’s next act: hosting ad lollapalooza

24 Feb 2023

The music service attracted activist ValueAct as founder Daniel Ek starts to whack costs. Yet rather than cutting its way to profit, Spotify could stem its losses by nabbing a quarter of the streaming and podcasting ad pie. It’s a tough but plausible performance to pull off.

Capital Calls: World Bank, Bumble, Wood Group

23 Feb 2023

Concise views on global finance: The U.S. picks ex-Mastercard boss Ajay Banga to run the multilateral development bank; while the dating app’s shares are down, private equity owner Blackstone is still in the money; the UK oil services group has turned down three bids from Apollo.

Capital Calls: Schneider’s sustainable CEO

16 Feb 2023

Concise views on global finance: Jean-Pascal Tricoire’s departure as chief executive of the French industrial software group after nearly two decades at the helm defies the trend of short-lived or underperforming corporate bosses.

Capital Calls: McDonald’s, Spotify

31 Jan 2023

Concise views on global finance: The burger chain’s comparable sales growth despite rising prices proves there’s pricing power at the bottom of the market; shares in the $21 bln music-streaming service leapt after founder Daniel Ek unveiled rapid subscriber growth.

Salesforce’s activists have an easy job

23 Jan 2023

Corporate cage rattler Elliott took a stake in the $150 billion tech firm alongside Starboard. They might want board seats or say in founder Marc Benioff’s successor. But the company is a better builder than buyer. With growth out of fashion, that’s naturally a good place to be.

Capital Calls: Activism, Bond spat, Airline M&A

18 Jan 2023

Concise views on global finance: Aggressive shareholder campaigns picked up in 2022, but activism is becoming an overcrowded strategy. Meanwhile, M&A machine Melrose takes on a fight that might not be worth winning, and German airline Lufthansa eyes a stake in Italy’s ITA.

Capital Calls: Prices down, jobs saved?

12 Jan 2023

Concise views on global finance: New data shows U.S. prices falling 0.1% in December, marking the largest drop since early 2020. With inflation in retreat, the Fed can focus more on keeping Americans employed.

Capital Calls: Lucky LBOs, Byron Trott

12 Dec 2022

Concise views on global finance: Coupa Software, a business that tracks expenses has a message for investors weighing its sale to Thoma Bravo: it is doing terribly. Byron Trott’s BDT is taking grill-maker Weber private again for $3.7 bln, a discount to last year’s IPO valuation.

Crypto watchdogs have a giant offshore problem

17 Nov 2022

FTX’s collapse should trigger tougher oversight of digital-asset groups in the Unites States and elsewhere. Yet big players, like Binance and the $40 bln decentralised-finance system, may stay out of reach. Clearer rules could bring more business onshore, but not all of it.

Tencent’s investor giveaway buys welcome respite

16 Nov 2022

The Chinese web giant is handing a $20 bln stake in food delivery firm Meituan to shareholders. The second such move in a year comes on top of increased share buybacks. The focus on boosting returns goes a long way to make up for slowing growth in Tencent’s video-game business.

Sam Bankman-Fried did financial system a favour

14 Nov 2022

The curly-haired cryptocurrency kingpin pushed regulators and politicians to legitimise assets like bitcoin. A few more years and his now-bankrupt exchange FTX would have burrowed deeper into mainstream finance, amplifying the damage. His downfall sends the process into reverse.

Tech mess hastens Irish economic turn inwards

11 Nov 2022

Multinationals like Meta Platforms bring in a quarter of Ireland’s $68 bln tax revenue, and the salaries they pay prop up its housing market. Now they’re shedding staff, the risk is a budget hole. Irish business may not like how a future Sinn Féin government would fill it.

NFTs may not get back up off the canvas

7 Nov 2022

Global non-fungible token sales have dropped over 90% since January. Enthusiasts remain hopeful that NFTs can branch into new, more durable applications that are less like trinkets. But with rate rises upending niche assets, don’t bet on it.

Elon Musk’s $44 bln Twitter challenge begins

3 Nov 2022

The Tesla boss is now the proud owner of the social media platform. In this Viewsroom podcast, Breakingviews columnists discuss the billionaire’s plans to boost revenue, the implications for the electric carmaker’s shareholders, and what the saga tells us about mega-deals.

There’s method to Saudi’s $38 bln gaming madness

11 Oct 2022

Riyadh says it will splash out to become “the ultimate global hub” for gaming by 2030. Saudi and the freewheeling sector are peculiar bedfellows. But with a petrodollar windfall and falling valuations, the kingdom has a good opportunity to make its unlikely vision happen.

Capital Calls: U.S. jobs

7 Oct 2022

Concise views on global finance: Employment numbers reported Friday show a robust market. But just like a sudden glut of inventory inflicting major retailers, businesses could find themselves overflowing with employees, too.

Capital Calls: Tesla greases supply-chain fears

3 Oct 2022

Concise views on global finance: The $760 bln electric-car maker manufactured more vehicles in the third quarter but delivered fewer than analysts were expecting, raising fresh concerns about the industry’s ability to get production running smoothly again.

Capital Calls: Google and gaming

30 Sep 2022

Concise views on global finance: The search giant is binning “cloud gaming” service Stadia three years after its launch.

Silicon Valley’s post-Covid brain drain

27 Sep 2022

Before the pandemic, 75% of venture capital was invested in California, New York and Massachusetts. In this Exchange podcast, AOL co-founder Steve Case explains that a hybrid working revolution is reversing that trend and encouraging permanent investment away from the coasts.

Capital Calls: EasyJet, Nexi

27 Sep 2022

Concise views on global finance: The budget airline scraps its offset plan and focuses efforts on cleaner technology; the 12 bln euro payment company’s valuation gap with peer Worldline looks increasingly hard to justify.