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Software

Capital Calls: Platinum Equity, FTC chair, Tui

16 Jun 2021

Concise views on global finance: The buyout firm acquires textbook company McGraw Hill and the maker of Singer sewing machines; Joe Biden’s pick for the Federal Trade Commission brings swagger; and another capital hike will still leave the German holiday group heavily indebted.

Tech IPO gives bad SPAC deals run for their money

15 Jun 2021

Macquarie-sponsored Nuix’s CEO and CFO resigned after poor earnings and forecast revisions within six months of taking the Australian software maker public. Blank-cheque deals like Lordstown are known for hype and under-delivery, and now this ordinary listing has managed it too.

Software deal contains two-sided logic errors

7 Jun 2021

Sydney-listed Altium spurned a $3.9 bln takeover bid from larger U.S. peer Autodesk. It’s an odd response given recent struggles and the chunky 42% premium on offer. The maths doesn’t compute for the suitor either. In wild M&A markets, such behaviour is a feature rather than a bug.

Babylon’s $4 bln SPAC is big bet on U.S. pivot

3 Jun 2021

The healthcare app sealed a merger with blank-cheque company Alkuri Global Acquisition. Its roots are in the UK, where its artificial intelligence received a mixed welcome. Babylon’s future rests on managing similar blowback and rivals’ competition in the U.S.

Capital Calls: Russia and US, Clothing IPOs, Food

3 Jun 2021

Concise views on global finance: The Kremlin tells its national state fund to get out of greenback-denominated assets; Rent the Runway thinks about going public; the FAO’s global food index hits its highest level in nearly a decade.

Unloved Cloudera tries $5.3 bln revamp in private

1 Jun 2021

The cloud software company went public in 2017 when its hype was already fading, and competition from Amazon has only intensified. A low return on the current business for the private equity buyers suggests the upside is chasing bigger markets rather than cutting costs.

Capital Calls: Klarna, Dan Loeb, Fashion IPO

28 May 2021

Concise views on global finance: The Swedish “buy now, pay later” group’s possible $50 bln price tag may leapfrog rivals Afterpay and Affirm; the corporate agitator deserves a taste of his own medicine; About You’s mooted 3 bln euro valuation implies a discount to rivals.

Huawei gets pushed toward collision with Alibaba

26 May 2021

Founder Ren Zhengfei wants his embattled hardware company to shift focus to cloud computing and software. That will pit him against the $570 bln e-commerce giant, which is also moving into IT services. Huawei's scale and resources make it a formidable threat.

UK shunts Trainline into financial slow track

20 May 2021

The 1.5 billion pound rail ticket website’s shares fell 30% on concerns that a state-backed app will topple its dominance. They are likely to fall further as greater competition squeezes profitability. KKR’s decision to IPO the business two years ago looks all the more timely.

Capital Calls: JPMorgan, FirstGroup, Break fees

18 May 2021

Concise insights on global finance: Jamie Dimon is shuffling his deputies; the UK bus-to-rail group’s sale of its U.S. businesses to EQT has hit an investor revolt; deals involving AT&T and Canadian National Railway highlight the fees due for walking away.

Capital Calls: Disney misses the mark

13 May 2021

Concise views on global finance: Walt Disney reported nearly 104 million subscribers for its streaming flagship service.

Dogecoin needn’t be any sillier than bitcoin

12 May 2021

The canine cryptocurrency lacks bitcoin’s supply limit, ethereum’s usefulness, and the heft of both. But it’s hyped by Elon Musk and others, which could help what started as a joke compete with other digital coinages. Crypto is young enough that there’s room for an underdog.

Germany becomes food delivery battleground, again

12 May 2021

Delivery Hero is returning to the market it exited in 2018, while Uber is also preparing to take a bite. The pandemic has given Germans a taste for home-delivered meals, boosting market leader Just Eat Takeaway. With big players piling back in, shareholders may go hungry.

Capital Calls: Amazon EU tax win, Scooter SPAC

21 Jan 2022

Concise views on global finance: Jeff Bezos’s e-commerce giant wins a victory over the European Union, but the battle has already moved on; Bird’s $2.3 billion price tag is relatively high but less pie-in-the-sky than some recent deals.

Apple’s App battle has only slightly epic ending

5 May 2021

A ruling against the $2 trillion tech behemoth in the case brought by video game company Epic could optically be bad for Apple and have global implications. But even if App Store sales fall in half, it would shave just 3% from Apple’s market value. Being a giant has privileges.

Capital Calls: Pfizer, ConocoPhillips

4 May 2021

Concise views on global finance: About $6 bln of additional earnings from Covid vaccines at the U.S. drug giant should mean more capital returned to investors; the independent oil group is offloading stock in Canada-based Cenovus it collected as part of a deal four years ago.

Capital Calls: Apple, UK SPACs

30 Apr 2021

Concise views on global finance: Apple’s European antitrust problem may start a global trend; UK regulators scramble to join SPAC party.

Capital Calls: Jerome Powell, Shopify

28 Apr 2021

Concise views on global finance: The clock is ticking on the Fed boss’s taper timeline; the e-commerce firm grew even as it warns of a post-pandemic lull.

Microsoft edge is not being one of its big rivals

27 Apr 2021

Regulatory scrutiny is holding back consumer-focused competitors Apple, Amazon and Alphabet. Microsoft is freer to do deals and promote software like Teams. Quarterly results show the benefits. Even so, a $2 trillion market cap makes it hard to keep out of the spotlight.