Software

Viewsroom: Facebook’s multiplying problems

29 Mar 2018

The social network founded by Mark Zuckerberg is reeling from a data harvest on some 50 million users. It will take time for the $440 billion firm to feel the impact but people are starting to slowly unplug. Plus, the world’s largest consumer-drone maker may go public.

Dropbox stores good news for tech IPOs

23 Mar 2018

The online-storage firm’s shares rocketed about 50 pct in its first few hours as a public company. The rousing welcome for a $12 bln tech firm aimed at consumers is heartening for Spotify. And it could accelerate IPO plans for firms like Airbnb and Lyft.

China trade spat is bigger than Trump

22 Mar 2018

The U.S. president ordered sweeping duties and investment restrictions. A trade swipe against the PRC has been brewing for years. The issues at stake – state capitalism, intellectual-property theft and national champions – are deep-seated, and tariffs may prove largely symbolic.

Salesforce’s $6.5 bln MuleSoft deal lacks heft

20 Mar 2018

The software maker is paying a whopping 16 times revenue for the cloud-services firm. The target is at least growing quickly. Unless Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff can convince shareholders he can cut costs and find new revenue, though, his biggest ever deal just looks fluffy.

Defense M&A fight pits poor David against Goliath

19 Mar 2018

CACI’s $7.2 bln bid for CSRA is 8 pct higher than the agreed deal General Dynamics struck last month. Neither offer stacks up financially, relying instead on rising U.S. defense spending. General Dynamics, though, has deep pockets and is paying all cash. Felling it will be hard.

Struggling Micro Focus haunted by Autonomy’s ghost

19 Mar 2018

The UK tech group, which paid $8.8 bln for Hewlett-Packard software assets, lost half its market value after saying the CEO had quit and sales could fall 9 pct. If that looks an overreaction, the woeful history of the business previously known as Autonomy helps explain the gap.

Dropbox seeks hard valuation for soft business

24 Feb 2018

The data-sharing company wants to raise $500 mln from public investors. In its favor are rapid revenue growth and strong cash flow. The trouble is that an early fundraising round inked a high value that’s hard to justify, especially with Dropbox’s growing competition.

Review: Knocking at the door of tech’s boys’ club

23 Feb 2018

Women played key roles in the development of computers, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at Silicon Valley. A hostile culture has pushed them to the fringes of America’s technology hotbed. A new book says thinking differently would pay dividends for women, and the industry.

Temenos’ $1.9 bln bid raises growth questions

20 Feb 2018

The Swiss bank-software group may buy Fidessa for 36.5 pounds a share in cash. The price looks high and returns low, unless the UK trading-tech group’s clients flock to buy Temenos products. Investors might wonder why, with revenue growing strongly, M&A is necessary.

Peter Thiel chooses better-fitting bubble in L.A.

15 Feb 2018

The conservative tech billionaire may be ditching lefty San Francisco, frustrated by its cultural homogeneity. His fortune and fame owe much to Facebook, which has helped add virtual segregation to real-world social sorting. In a sense, he’s a victim of his own investing success.

Alphabet is stuck at the letter G

1 Feb 2018

The holding company of Google was created to safeguard against conventionality and let moonshot ideas, like self-driving cars, flourish. Almost three years in, it’s basically still just Google. Which means, in turn, that the A in Alphabet stands mainly for advertising.

Tim Cook goes as American as Apple’s pie

17 Jan 2018

The iPhone maker will pay $38 bln in tax on its huge pile of overseas cash. It’s also pulling an Amazon with plans to open a new U.S. campus, invest $30 bln and create 20,000 jobs. The Apple boss has cleverly engineered some common ground with Donald Trump.

Facebook discovers cost of factory-farming users

12 Jan 2018

The $550 bln social network’s success harvesting ad dollars from mass-appeal content made it very profitable. The snag is that users are increasingly unhappy. Mark Zuckerberg’s return to focusing more on their welfare may limit short-run profits but should improve sustainability.

Software stickiness provides SS&C with rollup glue

11 Jan 2018

The U.S. tech group’s $5.4 bln acquisition of rival DST added well over $1 bln to the market value of each company. Investors are betting possible cost savings are twice as high as the buyer has said. That happens rarely, but in software it’s just about possible.

Xiaomi IPO could plug into Internet of Things hype

22 Dec 2017

Sales at the Chinese tech company are booming, Reuters reports, probably thanks to a turnaround in smartphones. A mooted $100 billion valuation at listing sounds aggressive, but Xiaomi might be able to position itself as the first big consumer-facing play on the connected home.

Google center exposes flaw in Beijing’s AI push

13 Dec 2017

By opening an artificial-intelligence research center in China, the Alphabet unit is acknowledging the Xi government's bid for leadership. Yet unlike most IP battles, knowledge in this nascent field is fluid and hard to capture. Beijing’s AI largesse is bound to leak to the U.S.

Facebook targets children with Snap rip-off

4 Dec 2017

Mark Zuckerberg’s outfit is launching a messaging app for kids under 12. It’s a bid to attract a new generation of users by a company struggling to lure youngsters from Snapchat. Yet it’s also a gamble for Facebook. Targeting tweens will invite even closer regulatory scrutiny.

Apple has deciding vote in Broadcom-Qualcomm deal

9 Nov 2017

A dispute over iPhone royalties left U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm vulnerable to rival Broadcom’s opportunistic $105 bln bid. Settling could preserve its independence. The question is whether Apple thinks a bigger Broadcom would be slavishly devoted, or even surlier.

Bill Ackman is losing his touch

7 Nov 2017

Fewer than one ADP shareholder in four backed the activist's bid for board seats at the payroll processor. That puts his Pershing Square hedge fund on a three-year losing streak after failed bets at Valeant and Herbalife – and makes it easy for other firms to ignore his demands.

U.S. rally, pain at home deter China tech’s return

5 Nov 2017

After a bold take-private deal last year, software maker Qihoo’s $8 bln backdoor listing has hit a regulatory snag. Meanwhile, shares of U.S.-listed Chinese outfits are outperforming those on the mainland. Tech firms considering an escape from New York might rethink their plans.