Software

Corona Capital: Movie releases, Ads, Running

4 Dec 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: HBO Max uses its muscle on movie releases; advertising wins some and loses some; Brooks’ beast year.

Payments is a wrinkly bow on Walmart’s India deal

3 Dec 2020

PhonePe was an afterthought when the U.S. retailer bought it with Flipkart in 2018. Now the star money-transfer app is being partially spun out of the e-tailer at a $5.5 bln price tag. It’s a deliberately conservative valuation for a business with enormous potential.

Salesforce skins Slack deal with revenue synergies

2 Dec 2020

Mergers are often about cost cuts, but the impetus behind Marc Benioff’s $28 bln bid for Slack is so Salesforce can boost tech offerings. Microsoft is using messaging services to grow. This deal makes sense if Salesforce can increase revenue 13% – or prevent it from evaporating.

SoftBank derivatives U-turn fuels governance hopes

2 Dec 2020

CEO Masayoshi Son will ditch an unpopular options strategy, Bloomberg reported, only months after launching it. That’ll please investors who want the Japanese group to focus on asset sales and share buybacks. Their next target should be his $17 bln portfolio of technology stocks.

France picks wrong tax fight with United States

30 Nov 2020

Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire wants President-elect Joe Biden’s administration to help overhaul rules on how digital services are taxed. A global minimum levy on all firms is more likely to win U.S. support, and will raise more cash. Europe’s tech-bashing is counterproductive.

UK mimics Big Tech in quest to reduce its clout

27 Nov 2020

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is setting up a special unit to police dominant firms like Facebook. A sweeping mandate, and the ability to act with tech-like speed, raises the risk of overreach. It’s still an upgrade on the ponderous, court-based approaches of the U.S. and Europe.

Corona Capital: U.S. airlines

20 Nov 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: The CDC issued a warning to Americans not to travel over the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday as Covid-19 cases surge. Airlines, once again, are going hat-in-hand to Washington.

Corona Capital: Lyft, Vaccine minefield, Peru

11 Nov 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: The U.S. ride-hailing company is tempted by food delivery; Pfizer could face high demand for its coronavirus vaccine; and Peru gets another leadership shuffle just as Covid-19 cases soar.

Double deal keeps payments M&A bandwagon rolling

2 Nov 2020

Weeks after agreeing a merger with domestic peer Sia, Italian group Nexi is seeking to buy Nordic operator Nets for around 7 bln euros. A quick deal brings cost savings and geographical diversification when rivals are tied up. But swallowing another large target adds complexity.

Microsoft can flip the antitrust script

27 Oct 2020

The software giant and the rest of Big Tech have benefited from pandemic conditions. It saw a 12% jump in revenue. But having been through the anticompetitive ringer, it’s largely escaped the current D.C. scrutiny of its rivals. That gives it an edge in focusing more on growth.

SAP’s shifting goalposts puncture Covid-19 hopes

26 Oct 2020

CEO Christian Klein scrapped his 2023 financial targets, wiping 20% off the $174 bln giant’s market worth. New 2025 goals imply a large pandemic-induced boost to cloud computing, which may merit a higher multiple. Investors smarting from Monday’s selloff are apt to wait and see.

Corona Capital: Greenwich, CT real estate

16 Oct 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Home sales in the swank New York City suburb preferred by bankers have soared while Manhattan apartment sales crater.

Teaching apps confront elephant in the classroom

15 Oct 2020

SoftBank’s call to buy a 9.7% stake in Kahoot! reflects a surge in demand for educational tech. But given users of the $2.7 bln Norwegian group’s app access it using Google, the U.S. tech giant may decide to develop its own version. That could at least limit stateside growth.

Deliveroo’s IPO is a dish best served soon

7 Oct 2020

The UK food delivery app is mulling a float in the public market next year. Using its peers’ multiples, Amazon-backed Deliveroo could fetch more than $5 bln. But with the pandemic-induced boost to its top line not guaranteed to last, it can’t afford to dawdle.

Warburg Pincus enjoys Japanese Suga rush

5 Oct 2020

IT conglomerate NEC will splash out $2.2 bln on private equity-backed Swiss fintech firm Avaloq. At 21 times adjusted EBITDA, it’s not cheap. But with new Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga vowing to digitise ministries and banks, the deal is well-timed for both sides.

TPG rides IPO wave with McAfee deal

29 Sep 2020

A bubbly public reception to software firms like Snowflake has left an opening for the buyout shop to float the cybersecurity company at three times its 2016 takeover valuation. McAfee has improved, but its owners have bonkers investors rather than better performance to thank.

Microsoft launches $7.5 bln gaming war of addition

21 Sep 2020

That’s what CEO Satya Nadella is paying for ZeniMax, owner of games like “Fallout.” The aim is to persuade more users to enlist in Microsoft’s subscription service and force providers like Apple to stream content on its terms. Success would make Microsoft look unstoppable.

Corona Capital: Newspaper rivals, College football

17 Sep 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: the Wall Street Journal hits up the New York Times’ printing presses; U.S. college football’s Big Ten makes a comeback.

Snowflake takes IPO hubris into the stratosphere

16 Sep 2020

Shares in the data-warehouse firm, already the biggest U.S. public listing of the year, more than doubled in early first-day trading. At about $80 bln, the money-losing firm is worth some 200 times trailing sales. It’s an apt expression of the panicked greed gripping investors.

Unity Software diversifies its IPO options

15 Sep 2020

The maker of software for creating video games is floating this week at a valuation up to $11 bln. It is trying an unusual auction process which could mean less money is left on the table than is typical and Unity has more control. The idea may only work for big-name issuers.