The Information

Photo by Bloomberg.

Why Stripe Is Cheaper Than Adyen

By Cory Weinberg · Feb 27, 2023 6:00am PST · 8 comments

Stripe has been blessed with a few big advantages over its Netherlands-based digital payments rival, Adyen. Stripe serves smaller businesses, allowing it to take a bigger cut of each sale. The vast majority of its customers are in the U.S., a more lucrative market than that of the European-centric Adyen. The result has been faster growth for... Stripe has been blessed with a few big advantages over its Netherlands-based digital payments...

A scene from the 2017 day when Okta went public. Photo by AP.

Three Cybersecurity Stocks That Look Cheap

By Akash Pasricha and Martin Peers · Feb 21, 2023 7:02am PST · 1 comment

You can tell a company’s stock price has fallen too far when its shareholders resist private equity buyout offers on the grounds that valuations are too depressed for selling. That’s what has happened lately in enterprise software, and it’s a sign that there are bargains to be had for savvy investors. Two examples:... You can tell a company’s stock price has fallen too far when its shareholders resist...

Bill Ready, CEO of Pinterest. Photo by Bloomberg

Pinterest Stock Prospects Hinge on ex-Googler’s Shopping Plans

By Mahira Dayal · Dec 16, 2022 6:00am PST

What a difference a year makes. At the start of 2022, Pinterest was on the outs with investors. Plagued by reports that executives were fleeing, along with falling user numbers, its stock was trading at a deep discount to that of Snap, a similar-size social media app that for the past few years had shown faster revenue growth. Today, the tables... What a difference a year makes. At the start of 2022, Pinterest was on the outs with investors....

Chart by Shane Burke

How Money-Losing Tech Firms Redefine Profits

By Cory Weinberg · Oct 31, 2022 6:00am PDT · 12 comments

Chart by Shane Burke

How Money-Losing Tech Firms Redefine Profits

By Cory Weinberg · Oct 31, 2022 6:00am PDT · 12 comments

Last month, Rent the Runway CEO Jennifer Hyman announced that the e-commerce company, used by tens of thousands of fashion aficionados on a budget, had turned a tiny profit during the second quarter after several years of losses—at least, that is, by the firm’s favorite metric of profitability. But that definition of profitability... Last month, Rent the Runway CEO Jennifer Hyman announced that the e-commerce company, used by...

Chart by Shane Burke

Why E-Commerce Disruptors Are Trading Like Brick-and-Mortar Dinosaurs

By Akash Pasricha and Martin Peers · Oct 17, 2022 6:00am PDT

E-commerce is on sale. Online commerce companies including ThredUp, Rent the Runway, Stitch Fix and Farfetch have seen their valuations tumble, putting them in the same ballpark as aging brick-and-mortar giants like Macy’s and Nordstrom. Already South Korea’s internet search giant, Naver, has taken advantage of the collapse to snap... E-commerce is on sale. Online commerce companies including ThredUp, Rent the Runway, Stitch Fix...

Art by Mike Sullivan

The Haziness in Microsoft’s Cloud Numbers

By Martin Peers · Sep 20, 2022 12:16pm PDT · 2 comments

Here’s a quick question for enterprise software acolytes out there: which tech giant is bigger in cloud, Microsoft or Amazon? It depends. Microsoft says total revenue for “Microsoft Cloud” was $91 billion in the year to June, which is significantly more than AWS’ $72 billion for the same 12-month period. But the... Here’s a quick question for enterprise software acolytes out there: which tech giant is...

Why ‘Battered’ SaaS Valuations Look Out of Touch With Reality

By Akash Pasricha · Aug 15, 2022 1:29pm PDT · 3 comments

Valuations for publicly traded enterprise software companies such as Salesforce and Workday have plunged from pandemic-era peaks, thanks to rising interest rates and worries that customers will cut software budgets during an economic slowdown. But there are signs the sell-off has gone too far. For the first time since at least 2019, the... Valuations for publicly traded enterprise software companies such as Salesforce and Workday have...

Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings. Photo by Bloomberg.

Netflix Could Boost U.S. Revenue 21% With Advertising Push

By Jessica Toonkel · May 23, 2022 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings. Photo by Bloomberg.

Netflix Could Boost U.S. Revenue 21% With Advertising Push

By Jessica Toonkel · May 23, 2022 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

Netflix has spent its entire existence setting the trend for others in video streaming to follow. But as it prepares to launch an ad-supported tier, Netflix executives are pondering a different question: Which rival service should it follow as a model? At one extreme is Disney-controlled Hulu, which runs more ads than most services and therefore... Netflix has spent its entire existence setting the trend for others in video streaming to follow....

Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco. Photo by Bloomberg.

Musk’s Buyout Playbook Means Big Job Cuts at Twitter

By Martin Peers · Apr 26, 2022 11:11am PDT · 11 comments

For all of Elon Musk’s talk about ridding Twitter of spam bots and introducing an edit button, his top priority when he takes charge may be more mundane—how to quickly cut costs. Given the amount of debt he is taking on in the acquisition, Musk will have a big incentive to lift Twitter’s profits as fast as possible. That almost... For all of Elon Musk’s talk about ridding Twitter of spam bots and introducing an edit...

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Startups That Were Pandemic Darlings Look Overvalued as Stocks Drop

By Akash Pasricha · Mar 24, 2022 12:48pm PDT · 3 comments

Many of the stocks that benefited most from pandemic-driven bumps have since fallen to their pre-pandemic levels, even when their businesses remain much bigger than they were back then. Now, startups that privately raised money at sky-high valuations during the pandemic, piggybacking off the soaring valuations of public companies, could be due... Many of the stocks that benefited most from pandemic-driven bumps have since fallen to their...

Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff. Photo by Bloomberg.

Why Salesforce Trades Like Oracle—Investors Fear Benioff’s Next Big Deal

By Martin Peers · Mar 17, 2022 6:00am PDT · 5 comments

If you want an example of just how much more weight investors are placing on profits than on revenue growth, take a look at Salesforce and Oracle. On one side is Salesforce, whose top line has grown at a remarkably stable rate, averaging 26% over the past seven fiscal years. On the other is aging software giant Oracle, whose revenue averaged... If you want an example of just how much more weight investors are placing on profits than on...

Vimeo CEO Anjali Sud. Photo by AP.

Vimeo Is Looking Like a Prime Takeover Target

By Aidan Ryan · Feb 17, 2022 6:00am PST

Vimeo CEO Anjali Sud. Photo by AP.

Vimeo Is Looking Like a Prime Takeover Target

By Aidan Ryan · Feb 17, 2022 6:00am PST

Barry Diller’s IAC internet-media empire has a long track record of successful spin-offs, including companies such as travel booking site Expedia, ticket seller Ticketmaster, and dating app company Match. Vimeo, its latest, hasn’t exactly shared their fate. Since its May separation from IAC, the video software firm’s stock has... Barry Diller’s IAC internet-media empire has a long track record of successful spin-offs,...

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek. Photo by Bloomberg.

Spotify’s Finances Show Why Music Streaming Is a Terrible Business

By Martin Peers · Feb 10, 2022 8:45am PST · 6 comments

Investors have slowly awakened to the realization that video streaming, as exemplified by Netflix, is a high-cost venture with lots of competition and no guarantee of a cash payoff. The economics of music streaming, though, are even worse. Just look at Spotify. It’s no secret that music companies take most of the money Spotify collects.... Investors have slowly awakened to the realization that video streaming, as exemplified by...

Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings.

Why Netflix Needs to Buy Another Streaming Service

By Martin Peers · Feb 2, 2022 6:00am PST · 4 comments

If Netflix’s warning of sharply slower subscriber growth tells us anything, it’s that Reed Hastings needs a new formula. The Netflix co-founder built the company into the leading video-streaming firm with a low-priced offering in a new market. But Netflix is now the priciest offering in an extremely crowded market. Without a change... If Netflix’s warning of sharply slower subscriber growth tells us anything, it’s that...

Zoom CEO Eric Yuan. Photo by Bloomberg.

Zoom, Palo Alto Networks, ServiceNow Stocks Deserve More Respect

By Martin Peers · Jan 27, 2022 9:03am PST · 1 comment

Talk about a descent to earth. Zoom Video, the rocket ship of the pandemic, has turned into a modern-day blimp in the stock sell-off of the past 12 months. Its stock has dropped 75% from the highs set in the fall of 2020 to Wednesday’s close of $140.33 as investors abandoned high-growth stocks. But Zoom has fallen too far. In a rising... Talk about a descent to earth. Zoom Video, the rocket ship of the pandemic, has turned into a...

Coinbase Stock Is Still Too Expensive, But That Won’t Last

By Martin Peers · Jan 13, 2022 6:00am PST · 5 comments

Coinbase Stock Is Still Too Expensive, But That Won’t Last

By Martin Peers · Jan 13, 2022 6:00am PST · 5 comments

In the past two months, as bitcoin prices have fallen about 37%, Coinbase stock has followed suit. Predictably, Wall Street analysts are doubling down on buy recommendations. Most point to Coinbase’s valuation, as measured by the standard metric of its price compared to its annual sales, which is lower than that of stock exchange operators... In the past two months, as bitcoin prices have fallen about 37%, Coinbase stock has followed...

BigCommerce Isn’t a Shopify Clone—And What That Means For Its Stock

By Malique Morris · Dec 15, 2021 6:00am PST

On the surface, you might think BigCommerce is getting smaller. The e-commerce software provider said it had 58,600 merchants using its services in the third quarter, down from 60,000 at the end of last year. That decline has undercut Wall Street’s belief that BigCommerce is the next Shopify: BigCommerce’s stock has dropped by half... On the surface, you might think BigCommerce is getting smaller. The e-commerce software provider...

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at an Oculus Connect event in 2017. Photo by Bloomberg.

What Will Metaverse Be Worth in 2025? Our Guess Is $82 Billion

By Mathew Olson · Oct 26, 2021 6:01am PDT · 6 comments

Facebook is spending tens of billions of dollars in the next few years building the virtual immersive world dubbed the metaverse, CEO Mark Zuckerberg indicated on Monday night. But he also acknowledged that the metaverse won’t evolve into a money-making business until “later in this decade.” We decided to try to calculate the... Facebook is spending tens of billions of dollars in the next few years building the virtual...

Honest Co's co-founder Jessica Alba with Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman and Honest Co CEO Nick Vlahos the day Honest went public in May. Photo by Bloomberg.

Why Warby Parker and Allbirds May Struggle on the Public Market

By Malique Morris · Sep 29, 2021 6:01am PDT · 4 comments

Warby Parker’s stock market listing today, along with Allbirds’ initial public offering expected in the coming weeks, will add two high-profile consumer goods brands to a stock market that lately has shown little love for similar businesses. In the past two years, Casper and The Honest Co. have been pummeled on Wall Street, with... Warby Parker’s stock market listing today, along with Allbirds’ initial public...

Reese Witherspoon. Photo by Bloomberg

Just How Rich Was Hello Sunshine’s Sales Price? Five Times Public Media Stock Values

By Jessica Toonkel and Sahil Patel · Aug 5, 2021 11:53am PDT · 1 comment

Reese Witherspoon. Photo by Bloomberg

Just How Rich Was Hello Sunshine’s Sales Price? Five Times Public Media Stock Values

By Jessica Toonkel and Sahil Patel · Aug 5, 2021 11:53am PDT · 1 comment

Since a Blackstone-led group agreed to buy Hello Sunshine at a valuation of $900 million this week, there’s been lots of talk about the rich prices Hollywood studios are fetching amid a shortage of quality programming for streaming. Just how rich, though, has remained murky—until now. The Information has learned that Hello Sunshine,... Since a Blackstone-led group agreed to buy Hello Sunshine at a valuation of $900 million this...