Operating at the Intersection of Technology and the Capital Markets
Month: August 2019
When is the correct time to sell your company? Many entrepreneurs and CEOs struggle with this question. A blueprint unfortunately does not exist. Below are signposts we have observed primarily across Application Software, FinTech, InsurTech, Information Services, IT Services and Technology-Enabled Services. The company participates in a mature end market and continued growth is dependent … Continue reading Is It Time to Sell Your Company?
What if the NFL were to convert to a premium subscription service? From a technical standpoint it would not be terribly difficult to migrate to a streaming service model. The NFL could build the direct-to-consumer platform on top of AWS, Azure or GCP. The NFL’s library isn’t nearly as vast as Disney’s nor Netflix’s. The … Continue reading The NFL as a Streaming ServicePremium
Some years ago many insurance carriers wrote tranches of long-term care (“LTC”) life insurance policies which have proved to be toxic. These “toxic” LTC policies - primarily written between 1999-2004 - were at the heart of a scathing critique of General Electric (tkr: GE) last week which ultimately accused the company of accounting fraud. While … Continue reading Toxic Long Term Care Policies: A Bane for Many. A Boon for Some.
We recently wrote that “Scale Matters in Tech”. Technology companies that have captured the number 1 or number 2 position within a particular vertical enjoy Economies of Scale including: 1.) automatically getting a seat at the table for sales bakeoffs, 2.) job seekers naturally gravitate toward market leaders, 3.) prospective acquisition targets will find you, … Continue reading Three Activist Investor TargetsPremium
Hear that? Someone is listening. In fact, they all are: Google, Microsoft, Amazon, even Apple (who has positioned itself as a privacy champion). AI - more specifically the neural networks that power voice assistants - are far from fully autonomous. Deep learning models require human assistance at this juncture. Fair. It is when companies do … Continue reading AI’s Dark Side – They’re Listening
The software industry is fluid and unforgiving - especially the CyberSecurity space. Companies either innovate or fall behind. There is no such thing as standing still. This week semiconductor firm Broadcom (tkr: AVGO) agreed to acquire Symantec's Enterprise business. Symantec (tkr: SYMC), is a CyberSecurity software vendor and is a laggard in an industry that's … Continue reading The Software Treadmill: Keep Pace or Fall Behind
Alexa is shaping-up to be the ambient, ubiquitous Operating System that will underpin our lives. Amazon’s AI platform is powered by a fleet of smart home devices, automobiles, in-store experiences (Wholefoods, Amazon Go), ecommerce activity and physical commerce. Below are a few noteworthy items. For a more holistic perspective see our article The Three Rings … Continue reading Alexa: Amazon’s Ambient, Ubiquitous OS
We have definitely entered a period of CyberSecurity fatigue. When Capital One's (tkr: COF), stock barely gets hit in the aftermath of a significant CyberBreach you know many investors - as Rhett Butler once said - "don't give a damn". CEO's need to "own" CyberSecurity and operate it like a line of business. Customer PII … Continue reading CyberSecurity Is Not Someone Else’s Problem
Based on June quarter earnings call results, management teams have less visibility into Sales pipelines, Revenue forecasts and Profitability in the aggregate than several months ago. This in turn causes would be acquirers to haircut purchase price valuations if not walk away from deals entirely. In the former case, valuation haircuts typically either stall deal … Continue reading It Takes Two to Tango. Don’t Expect M&A Activity to Accelerate Anytime Soon
LP’s are increasingly hiring third-party expert firms to verify fees payable to Private Equity managers. When I first read this news I was surprised to learn that many LP’s don’t have an operationalized process around validating management fee schedules and payment processing. Apparently I was naive in thinking that PE managers supplied LPs with a … Continue reading LP Fee Verification & Administration as a Service
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