Operating at the Intersection of Technology and the Capital Markets
Tag: ADBE
Quality management teams measure the effectiveness of their M&A programs on a deal-by-deal basis. My favorite measure is Return On Invested Capital or ROIC. There are various ways to calculate ROIC. More important is the discipline of working through the process. Consider Adobe's $21.8 billion acquisition of Figma ($20 billion of cash and stock plus … Continue reading ROIC and M&A. Adobe Gets an “F”.
We were critical of Adobe's (ADBE) acquisition of Figma for a few reasons. These elements can be applied to the analysis of any M&A transaction. Valuation: 50x revenue is a rich valuation no matter how you slice it. I don't care how unique Figma's product offerings may be or how competitive the deal may have … Continue reading Analyzing an M&A Transaction
"G" is the most important letter in "ESG" investing. "G" or "Governance" refers to the men and women who comprise corporate management teams and Boards. Management - the CEO in particular - matters a great deal as to the long-term success of any company. Too frequently CEOs and Boards put Executive Compensation ahead of corporate … Continue reading CEOs That Put Themselves First
Too frequently companies execute M&A transactions not because a given acquisition strengthens the acquiring company's competitive position or enhances customer value, but because the acquired company could help boost CEO compensation of the acquirer by driving some combination of higher total revenue growth, higher EBITDA, higher bookings and/or a higher stock price. Today's announcement that … Continue reading When CEO Compensation Is The Primary M&A Driver
CEORater began an experiment several years ago whereby we built a concentrated "buy and hold" equal-weight portfolio consisting of quality Enterprise Software names that would be held for a minimum of five years. The benchmark is the S&P North American Expanded Technology Software Index (SPNASEUP). CEORater is up 4.2% Year-to-Date vs. 2.0% for the benchmark … Continue reading CEORater Portfolio Ahead of The Benchmark
We published a piece in March 2020 entitled Battle-Tested Software CEOs, that highlighted a group of CEOs that we believed would hold the line and successfully navigate the COVID waters. Here is our updated thinking regarding that list. Tickers mentioned: AAPL, ADBE, CSGP, CVLT, FISV, MSCI, PYPL, SPGI, SQ, SSNC, VRSK Andy Florance. Founder & … Continue reading Update: Battle-Tested Software CEOs
We compared Product Development/ Research & Development investment as a Percentage of Revenue for 20 Technology companies across a variety of subsectors. Our comparison focused on the December quarter. Click HERE to download the table as a PDF. Tickers mentioned: AAPL ADBE ADSK AMZN CRM CSGP FB GOOG IBM ICE MSFT NFLX ORCL PYPL SHOP … Continue reading We Compared Product Development Investment for 20 Tech Companies
The CEORater "Quality" Portfolio is an experiment which we began running at the end of 2018. The portfolio consists of a mix of Software, Information Services and Fintech companies, half of which are led by founder CEOs (we generally prefer founder CEOs). The question the experiment sought to answer was "How would a basket of … Continue reading CEORater “Quality” Portfolio Outperformed in 2020
AWS, Azure and GCP are to thank in large part for the proliferation of applications powered by broadly-defined AI. The big three remote server platforms have made it increasingly easy for companies of all sizes from all industries to build applications that incorporate core AI, machine learning, deep learning and related capabilities. A wide variety … Continue reading Artificial Intelligence Is Electricity 2.0
Where is the market support coming from? Lipper data (below) shows net fund outflows for Equity funds. Therefore perhaps a sector rotation into Technology funds is providing support for Technology names. We have yet to find fundamental data that would support a bullish near-to-intermediate-term outlook for Technology names, with the exception being the leading streaming … Continue reading Stick With Quality Companies
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