Epic’s $29 bln price tag looks beyond “Fortnite” 14 Apr 2021 Its latest fundraising values the maker of the cult shoot-’em-up game at two-thirds more than last August. That’s a bigger bump than listed peers got from the pandemic. Investors are counting on boss Tim Sweeney’s bets on digital marketplaces and game-making software to pay off.
Capital Calls: Christine Lagarde, Bernie Madoff 14 Apr 2021 Concise views on global finance: The European Central Bank president’s quest for inflation will take a while to achieve its goal; investor gullibility will live on after the death of the Ponzi schemer in a U.S. federal prison.
SAP’s nice surprise makes case for value discount 14 Apr 2021 The $166 bln German IT group is wooing customers to its cloud software, boosting revenue. Yet investors aren’t giving CEO Christian Klein much credit. It’s hard to predict when clients will roll off SAP’s old-school products. A track record of shifting targets doesn’t help.
Grab’s $40 bln debut comes with twin airbags 13 Apr 2021 The Southeast Asian taxi-to-fintech firm is going public at a sales multiple twice Uber’s. U.S. SPAC sponsor Altimeter is contributing to a $4 bln PIPE and signing a long lockup. It’s a smart way to underwrite an amped-up valuation and sets a template to speed others to market.
Capital Calls: LVMH surges back to full health 13 Apr 2021 Concise views on global finance: The 300 billion euro luxury conglomerate’s first-quarter sales surpass pre-Covid-19 levels.
Capital Calls: U.S. CEO pay 12 Apr 2021 Concise views on global finance: The median big-company boss is ending up with $13.7 mln for the 2020 pandemic year, a payout that's heading for a record.
Gaming weakness puts Ubisoft on M&A last life 9 Apr 2021 Shares in the “Assassin’s Creed” publisher have languished since a failed takeover by Vivendi in 2018. Despite a pandemic boost, CEO Yves Guillemot’s $10 bln group suffers from dour profitability. That leaves him open to attack by rivals like Activision Blizzard or Tencent.
Box KKR deal kills two birds with three stones 8 Apr 2021 Activist Starboard Value wanted a sale of the $4 bln cloud-services group and board changes. Now KKR will invest $500 mln in convertible preferred stock, which Box will use to repurchase regular shares. Governance improvements are a plus, but it's a complicated way to buy time.
Atos’ April Fool surprise is no laughing matter 1 Apr 2021 The French IT group’s shares fell 14% after it flagged accounting problems at two U.S. units. The 1 bln euro hit to its market value looks harsh given they bring in only 11% of sales. Fears of more financial bugs will stymie CEO Elie Girard’s efforts to close the gap with rivals.
Capital Calls: Elon Musk, LeBron James 1 Apr 2021 Concise views on global finance in the Covid-19 era: Endeavor, Ari Emanuel’s entertainment group, is hoping the Tesla boss’s stardust will help a second attempt at an IPO; the basketball star’s stake in the Red Sox is a foil to Steve Cohen’s Mets deal.
Hitachi’s $9.6 bln buy defies some global logic 31 Mar 2021 The Japanese group is paying a huge 38 times forecast EBITDA for U.S.-software firm GlobalLogic. That’s only partly justified by the target’s superfast growth in a hot “digital transformation” market. Boss Toshiaki Higashihara will need serious synergies to eke a decent return.
Robinhood IPO comes with forest of perils 30 Mar 2021 The U.S. retail brokerage has expanded its user base and profile fast. But its main revenue, payments from market makers, is under pressure from regulators and rivals. Other parts of the top line are under pressure too. It’s hard to square that with a $30 billion valuation.
Capital Calls: BlackRock’s Archegos angle, SPACs 30 Mar 2021 Concise views on global finance in the Covid-19 era: The fallout from the collapse of Bill Hwang’s family office gives regulators reasons to focus on funds, not fund managers; and bosses of blank-check companies don’t take investor questions.
Review: “A World Without Email” is a long way off 26 Mar 2021 Tending to electronic communication takes a third of our working day, making us miserable and less productive, Cal Newport argues. Virtual to-do lists are useful hacks to regain control. Yet even if email is defeated, interruption by pervasive digital messages seems here to stay.
Capital Calls: Twitter time-wasting, News Corp 25 Mar 2021 Concise views on global finance in the Covid-19 era: Congressional hearings on Big Tech get ever less productive; meanwhile, the parent of the Wall Street Journal snaps up Investor’s Business Daily.
Capital Calls: Leon Black, Happiness index 22 Mar 2021 Concise views on global finance in the Covid-19 era: Apollo’s founder still has his imprint on the Museum of Modern Art and Dartmouth College; people are proving surprisingly resilient in the pandemic, a recent poll suggests.
Capital Calls: New York, Allegro exit 17 Mar 2021 Concise views on global finance in the Covid-19 era: The Big Apple reigns in a new ranking of global cities, but the prize isn’t what it was; shareholders in Polish e-commerce group Allegro sell down early.
Big Tech’s data virtue-signalling has casualties 16 Mar 2021 Apple and Google are making it harder for marketers to track individual users. It’s a no-brainer: the changes will cement their dominance and please privacy-focused regulators. But mobile-game developers and the rest of the $330 bln online advertising sector will feel the pain.
Stripe’s $95 bln pop raises bar for payments hype 15 Mar 2021 The privately held group run by the Collison brothers raised money at almost triple its last valuation. It seems rich even next to listed peer Adyen. Investors in the companies are betting on a decade of breakneck growth. Rising competition means they can’t all be winners.
VW drives for second place in Tesla-led tech race 12 Mar 2021 Boss Herbert Diess wants to steer the $128 bln German automaker into the thick of the fast-growing market for in-car software. Closing the gap on Elon Musk’s outfit will be tough. But even a podium finish behind the leader would jump-start Volkswagen’s analogue valuation.