SAP - SAP SE
| Previous Close | 120.88 |
| Open | 119.97 |
| Bid | 118.69 x 1400 |
| Ask | 119.01 x 900 |
| Day's Range | 118.85 - 120.04 |
| 52 Week Range | 94.81 - 140.62 |
| Volume | 522,607 |
| Avg. Volume | 804,144 |
| Market Cap | 145.582B |
| Beta (3Y Monthly) | 0.86 |
| PE Ratio (TTM) | 28.74 |
| EPS (TTM) | 4.14 |
| Earnings Date | N/A |
| Forward Dividend & Yield | 1.67 (1.39%) |
| Ex-Dividend Date | 2019-05-16 |
| 1y Target Est | 141.96 |
- PR Newswire
Totango Spark Successfully Deployed as SAP's One Customer Success Platform
SAN MATEO, Calif., Sept. 12, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Totango, the leading provider of customer success solutions for the enterprise, today announced its Totango Spark solution has been deployed successfully by SAP (SAP) across the majority of its lines of business, representing 20,000 customers and more than 2,100 users – completed in just five months. The solution will be used as a single, integrated customer success platform to help SAP evolve, deploy and expand its execution of customer success initiatives. SAP has also made an investment in Totango, signaling the company's confidence in Totango's leading expertise and innovation in the customer success industry.
- PR Newswire
SAP® Integrated Delivery Framework Eases Move to SAP S/4HANA® for Customers
WALLDORF, Germany , Sept. 12, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced the continued momentum of its SAP® Integrated Delivery Framework, which helps streamline the move to SAP S/4HANA ...
- Bloomberg
TeamViewer IPO Gives Germany Its First Tech Champion in Decades
(Bloomberg) -- Germany will finally get another major listed tech company when software maker TeamViewer AG completes a 2.3 billion-euro ($2.5 billion) initial public offering this month -- the biggest in the industry in almost two decades.While Germany has several established tech companies, including software giant SAP SE, there have been few sizable newcomers since chipmaker Infineon Technologies AG listed in 2000. TeamViewer will provide a boost to the weakest European IPO market in years and comes as Germany’s economy teeters on the brink of a recession. The share sale, which is oversubscribed, will be the country’s largest so far this year.Founded in 2005, TeamViewer has developed from a local provider of remote computer access tools to one that offers connectivity to customers in about 180 countries. The company plans to further expand in Europe, Asia and the U.S., and will add to its offerings for large corporate customers to help them connect anything from mobile phones and tablets to machine sensors, smart farming equipment or wind turbines.With a sudden influx of new offerings in Europe, IPO investors have a lot to choose from. Apart from TeamViewer, private equity firm EQT Partners AB is also marketing its initial public offering, with a management roadshow kicking off next week. On Thursday, Helios Towers Plc -- one of sub-Saharan Africa’s largest mobile-phone tower operators -- announced plans to list on the London Stock Exchange.TeamViewer’s owner, private equity firm Permira, plans to sell as many as 84 million shares for 23.50 euros to 27.50 euros each via holding firm TigerLuxOne, the company said late Wednesday. TeamViewer stock is expected to start trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on Sept. 25.The price range would give the company a market value of between 4.7 billion euros and 5.5 billion euros. Bloomberg News previously reported the valuation could be 4 billion euros to 5 billion euros. The listing will improve TeamViewer’s brand recognition and make it easier for it to grow organically and via “selected acquisitions,” spokeswoman Martina Dier said.TeamViewer may hire more people in the U.S. and opened offices in China, Japan, India and Singapore last year to expand sales in those markets. In China alone, TeamViewer has “tens of millions” of free users, more of whom the company wants to convert into paying customers, according to Chief Executive Officer Oliver Steil.“Our big growth combined with strong profitability -- even if market conditions have been difficult -- makes our financial profile attractive to investors,” Steil said in an interview last month.TeamViewer’s cash billings grew more than 35% in the first half, faster than last year’s 25% growth, to over 140 million euros, the CEO said. The company posted a cash operating profit margin of more than 50% during the period. It says its software has been installed on more than 2 billion devices.Permira bought the company for 870 million euros in 2014. It has since partnered with firms including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Salesforce.com Inc. to bolster its cloud offerings.The free float, a measure of company stock available to trade, will be 30% to 42%, depending on the size of the IPO, according to the statement.Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley are arranging the IPO, with Bank of America Corp., Barclays Plc and RBC Capital Markets. Lilja & Co. is acting as an independent adviser to Permira and TeamViewer.(Updates with company comment in sixth paragraph. An earlier version of the story was corrected to remove reference to IPO proceeeds)To contact the reporter on this story: Stefan Nicola in Berlin at snicola2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Dale Crofts at dcrofts@bloomberg.net, Andrew Blackman, Chris ReiterFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- PR Newswire
"SAP® for Me" Offers Customers a Digital Companion to Provide Centralized Transparency Across Product Portfolio
WALLDORF, Germany, Sept. 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- SAP SE (SAP) today announced the launch of the SAP® for Me Web site, an online portal providing SAP customers personalized access and a transparent view of their entire product portfolio. "SAP for Me" encompasses all lines of SAP products and services, including on-premise and cloud products, and is available free of charge as an open beta version[1] for all customers with a valid contract. As an advanced, easy-to-use portal, SAP for Me aggregates all important alerts, metrics and insights from a customer's product portfolio at one access point, helping to centralize information and speed up interaction and outcome.
- Bloomberg
Naspers Unit Soars in Debut to Close Discount With Tencent
(Bloomberg) -- Want the lowdown on European markets? In your inbox before the open, every day. Sign up here.Naspers Ltd.’s newly listed internet unit received an enthusiastic early response from investors, soaring on its trading debut to close a valuation discount to its biggest investment, Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings Ltd.Prosus NV, as the new Amsterdam-listed company is known, jumped as much as 32% in early trading to value the business at about 125 billion euros ($138 billion). The group’s 31% stake in WeChat creator Tencent is worth about $131 billion, the result of a timely investment made almost two decades ago.The investor reaction is an early vindication of the strategy masterminded by Naspers Chief Executive Officer Bob van Dijk, who took the helm of the Cape Town-based company five years ago. His plan to carve out Prosus into a new listing in Amsterdam was designed to attract a more global investor base and realize more value, while weakening the group’s dominance over the Johannesburg stock exchange.The move to Euronext is “to facilitate our next phase of growth,” Van Dijk said in an interview with Bloomberg TV just after the market opened. Prosus’s classified-ads business is the largest in the world, while the group also sees fast expansion in internet payments, food delivery and online trading in second-hand goods, he said.While the discount to Tencent was all but wiped out, the firm is still trading below the sum of its parts when you add other assets, including shareholdings in Russia’s Mail.Ru Group Ltd. and Delivery Hero SE of Germany. Van Dijk’s next challenge will be to generate higher returns from those investments and prove that Prosus isn’t merely a proxy for holding Tencent stock.“Our next step will be to bed down and invest in our core business units,” Chief Financial Officer Basil Sgourdos said by phone.Shares in Prosus -- a Latin word meaning ‘forwards’ -- declined slightly after the early surge. The value as of 11:28 a.m. in Amsterdam was 121 billion euros, making it the third-largest publicly traded company in the Netherlands, behind Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Unilever NV. Its market value rivals that of Europe’s biggest tech company, Germany’s SAP SE.Naspers is retaining a 73% stake in Prosus, and will keep hold of South African businesses including the newspapers that form the basis of the company’s origins a century ago. Its stock rose in Johannesburg, trading 5.4% higher as of 11:28 a.m. local time.“Naspers has been looking to unlock value in the steep discount applied to its Tencent holding and the successful listing of Prosus today has certainly gone some way to achieving that target,” said Neil Campling, an analyst at Mirabaud Securities. “Prosus is not only the Tencent holding though.”(Updates with CFO comment in sixth paragraph.)\--With assistance from Swetha Gopinath, Anna Edwards, Matthew Miller and Kit Rees.To contact the reporters on this story: Loni Prinsloo in Johannesburg at lprinsloo3@bloomberg.net;John Bowker in Johannesburg at jbowker2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Thomas Pfeiffer at tpfeiffer3@bloomberg.net, Jennifer RyanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Reuters
SAP chief says German headquarters an advantage amid U.S.-China trade war
German business software company SAP SE has an edge over its U.S. rivals because it faces potentially fewer restrictions on doing business with China, Chief Executive Bill McDermott said in an interview. SAP, which makes financial management and human resources software for large businesses, is targeting large, state-owned enterprises in China as customers despite the ongoing trade war between the United States and China, McDermott told Reuters. Some of SAP's U.S.-based rivals, such as Microsoft Corp, have been barred from doing business with Chinese firms such as Huawei Technologies Co Ltd. Other American firms such as Cisco Systems Inc say Chinese state-owned firms will no longer allow them to bid on contracts because of trade tensions.
- Zacks
The 4th Industrial Revolution Portfolio: Big Data Plays
Big data is changing the business landscape in which firms are competing, making it a necessity to not only have real-time data transparency but be able to analyze massive data sets to understand your business and your customers.
- American City Business Journals
SAP Chief Diversity Officer Judith Williams: How managers can retain and promote diverse employees
SAP's chief diversity and inclusion officer, Judith Williams, says long-term diversity outcomes can be the result of managers' day-to-day decisions around which of their employees get to work on the best projects — which can be driven by unconscious bias and favoritism.
- TechCrunch
Watch TC Sessions: Enterprise live stream right here
TechCrunch is live from San Francisco's YBCA's Blue Shield of CaliforniaTheater, where we're hosting our first event dedicated to the enterprise
- Business Wire
Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating to Deliver Keynote at SAP® Ariba® Live in Sydney
SAP NEWSBYTE — Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating will deliver an enlightening closing keynote session at the SAP® Ariba® Live event in Sydney, the premier global procurement and supply chain conference, SAP SE (SAP) announced today. The Sydney event is the last stop in the event’s Asia-Pacific-Japan series and is scheduled to take place September 10–11 at The Westin Sydney. SAP Ariba Live will bring together buyers, suppliers, partners and thought leaders across Australia and New Zealand to network and explore the power of intelligent spend management to help drive greater efficiencies, transparency and accountability in pursuit of purpose and good business.
- InvestorPlace
Beware of Valuation Risks on Workday Stock
Shares of Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) fell about 6% in late August after the hyper-growth cloud enterprise resource planning company reported second-quarter numbers which topped expectations. Management also hiked the full-year 2020 revenue guide. In other words, Workday reported a double-beat and-raise second-quarter earnings report, and in response, WDAY stock fell.Source: Sundry Photography / Shutterstock.com A stock failing to rally on a double-beat-and-raise report should raise red flags. It is almost always a sign of overvaluation.Is that what we have with Workday stock? I think so. Workday is a great company doing great things. The financials look really good, the narrative is robust, and the long-term potential is promising. But, Workday stock is priced for all that good stuff -- and then some.InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading TipsIndeed, my numbers indicate that a fundamentally supported fiscal 2020 price target for WDAY stock is somewhere around $140. WDAY stock trades hands north of $170 today -- and we are only halfway through fiscal 2020.Thus, Workday stock seems overextended here. To be sure, overextended stocks can stay in rally mode so long as investors keep buying. But, investors aren't buying anymore. WDAY stock is down 20% over the past two months.I think this is the beginning of a bigger downturn in WDAY stock. As such, I'd avoid buying the dip here for the foreseeable future. Workday Has Solid FundamentalsFirst, I want it to be understood broadly that Workday is a good company doing really innovative things and gaining share rapidly in a big market. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with Workday.Enterprises everywhere are migrating to the cloud. As they do, they are adopting cloud ERP solutions to digitize, automate and optimize finance, HR and corporate planning processes. SAP (NYSE:SAP) and Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) have traditionally dominated the ERP market. But as the market has pivoted to the cloud, Workday has stepped in as a third legitimate player. A few years ago, hardly anyone used Workday. Today, 50% of Fortune 50 companies and 40% of Fortune 500 companies use Workday for their cloud ERP. * 7 Best Tech Stocks to Buy Right Now There's still plenty of room for growth here. Only one-fifth of enterprise workloads have migrated to the cloud so far. Further, while 40% of Fortune 500 companies use Workday, only 17% of global 2000 companies do so, too. Thus, Workday has a tremendous opportunity over the next few years to: 1) grow wallet share among big enterprises, and 2) increase adoption among smaller enterprises on a global scale.Consequently, revenue growth will remain big for the foreseeable future. Most of that revenue growth will come through the high-margin subscription revenue pipeline, so it will be additive to gross profits. At the same time, big revenue growth should drive consistent positive operating leverage, so operating margins and profits should both move higher with revenues.Net net, Workday projects to be a big revenue and profit grower for a lot longer. Workday Stock Is OvervaluedSound like a great growth narrative? It is.But, WDAY stock is already priced for all this. Revenue growth is slowing from 30%-plus rates, to 20%-plus rates. The margin expansion trajectory is flattening out because Workday is having to spend big to compete at scale. Gross margins in the subscription business are also showing signs of being maxed out. Thus, while profit growth will remain robust, it won't be as robust as it has been.Realistically, I think this a 20% revenue growth company with healthy, but not huge, margin upside drivers. That combination leads me to believe that $6 in earnings per share is an optimistic but doable target by 2025.That would represent more than 250% growth from 2020's projected EPS. But, that's just not enough growth. If you apply an application software average 34-times forward earnings multiple to that 2025 EPS target of $6, you arrive at a 2024 price target for WDAY stock of over $200. Discounted back by 10% per year, that equates to a 2020 price target of under $140.Workday stock trades north of $170 today. We aren't even halfway through fiscal 2020. Thus, WDAY stock seems aggressively overvalued today. The Party Appears to Be OverTo be sure, aggressively overvalued stocks can stay aggressively overvalued for a long time, so long as investors keep buying into the stock and the party stays alive.Unfortunately, the party in WDAY stock appears to be winding down.Markets have been choppy over the past few months. But not too choppy. Since mid-July, the S&P 500 is down about 3.5%. Cloud stocks are down about the same, with the First Trust Cloud Computing ETF (NASDAQ:SKYY) down about 5%.WDAY stock is down more than 20% over that same stretch. That is a noticeable underperformance of both the market and Workday's peers over the past few weeks.This underperformance leads me to believe that the party is over, meaning that this stock may not find support until its fundamentals give it support -- which doesn't happen until $140. Bottom Line on WDAY StockI'd stay away from Workday stock for the foreseeable future. The party appears to be over, and now the market is left with an aggressively overvalued cloud stock that investors don't want to touch. That dynamic should ultimately result in WDAY stock falling back below $150 over the next few weeks to months.As of this writing, Luke Lango did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. More From InvestorPlace * 2 Toxic Pot Stocks You Should Avoid * 7 Best Tech Stocks to Buy Right Now * 10 Mid-Cap Stocks to Buy * 8 Precious Metals Stocks to Mine For The post Beware of Valuation Risks on Workday Stock appeared first on InvestorPlace.
- Simply Wall St.
SAP (FRA:SAP) Seems To Use Debt Quite Sensibly
Some say volatility, rather than debt, is the best way to think about risk as an investor, but Warren Buffett famously...
- American City Business Journals
13 major Bay Area layoffs in 2019
More than 5,000 employees received pink slips this year from Bay Area companies laying off 200 or more workers.
- Bloomberg
Permira’s TeamViewer Plans to Launch Big German IPO This Week
(Bloomberg) -- The owners of software maker TeamViewer GmbH are planning a Frankfurt listing this year that could be the biggest German initial public offering for a technology company in nearly two decades.Permira will sell shares in the listing, planned before year-end, via its holding firm, TigerLuxOne, the company said in a statement Wednesday. TeamViewer could seek a valuation of 4 billion euros ($4.4 billion) to 5 billion euros, people familiar with the matter said previously.Permira could sell 30% to 40% of the company, depending on investor demand, the people said. While Germany has a bevy of established tech companies, including software giant SAP SE, there have been few sizable newcomers since chipmaker Infineon Technologies AG listed in 2000.“It is hard to pick the right moment in time but our big growth combined with strong profitability, even if market conditions have been difficult, makes our financial profile attractive to investors,” TeamViewer Chief Executive Officer Oliver Steil said in an interview on Wednesday. “There is a lot going on in the space and it’s still a bit early, but we will see more tech players emerge in a few years.”TeamViewer and Permira declined to comment on the size of the offering.Europe is grappling with its worst market for IPOs in years. Escalating trade wars and the specter of Brexit has lead to the fewest companies choosing to go public in a decade, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.Read More: Going Public With One Hand Tied Behind Your BackStill, there are signs that the environment is improving. Besides TeamViewer, Helios Towers Plc, one of sub-Saharan Africa’s largest mobile-phone tower operators, and French glass bottle maker Verallia are gearing up to kick off their own European IPOs in the next few weeks, people familiar with the matter have said.Based in Goeppingen in southern Germany and founded in 2005, TeamViewer develops software for collaboration and remote desktop access. Permira bought the company for 870 million euros in 2014. It has since partnered with firms including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Salesforce.com Inc. to bolster its cloud offerings.Financial GrowthTeamViewer’s cash billings grew more than 35% in the first half, accelerating from 25% last year, to more than 140 million euros. It says its software has been installed on more than 2 billion devices.For the full year, the company said it expects billings growth of 35% to 39% and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of as much as 183 million euros.“Going down the IPO route versus selling means that we can remain an independent player, and it is important for us to sustain our independence,” Steil said.Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley are arranging the IPO, with Bank of America Corp., Barclays Plc and RBC Capital Markets. Lilja & Co. is acting as an adviser to Permira and TeamViewer.(Updates with quotes from CEO interview starting in fourth paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Myriam Balezou in London at mbalezou@bloomberg.net;Aaron Kirchfeld in London at akirchfeld@bloomberg.net;Sarah Syed in London at ssyed35@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Dinesh Nair at dnair5@bloomberg.net, Amy Thomson, Giles TurnerFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- TechCrunch
SAP & Pricefx cover hot topics at TechCrunch's Sept. 5 Enterprise show in SF
The editors will sit down with McDermott and talk about SAP’s quick growth due, in part, to several $1 billion-plus acquisitions. On September 5, you'll enjoy three breakout sessions --two from SAP and one from Pricefx.
- Bloomberg
Salesforce.com Sees Surge in Bullish Bets With Earnings on Deck
(Bloomberg) -- Salesforce.com options are showing a decidedly bullish tilt ahead of its second-quarter earnings report, signaling that investors are betting the business software maker’s results will be better received than those of European counterpart SAP SE last month.There are more than twice as many calls than puts among contracts set to expire Friday in the wake of this afternoon’s release, and options prices imply a 6% earnings-day price move. That’s almost double the 3.1% average of the past eight reports, when rallies outpaced declines five-to-three. The stock has gained 8% this year, compared with a 31% rally in the the S&P 500 Software Index.It’s probably going to be a “noisy” earnings report, given Salesforce.com’s recent acquisition of Tableau Software Inc., according to SunTrust Robison Humphrey analyst Terry Tillman. He said the acquisition closed about two months sooner than targeted and he would expect stability and modest upside for the second-quarter with more catalysts ahead.San Franciso-based Salesforce.com has low exposure to China and is unlikely to reiterate the same concerns around the U.S.- China trade dispute that SAP has, Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Anurag Rana and Gili Naftalovich said in an Aug. 14 research note. Margins are likely to expand as sales growth exceeds the rate of investment in new products and geographies, but the acquisition of Salesforce.org and currency headwinds may weigh on the rate of expansion, they said.SAP, which traded at a record high on July 3, has since fallen 14%, with the decline accelerating after it reported a second-quarter slowdown in new cloud bookings and disappointing margins. Analysts also underscored weak growth in software license revenue, hit by uncertainty in Asia.About 17% of total open interest in Salesforce.com is set to expire on Friday, and implied volatility is elevated at 117% versus a three-month average of 30%.To contact the reporter on this story: Gregory Calderone in New York at gcalderone7@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Catherine Larkin at clarkin4@bloomberg.net, Richard Richtmyer, Brendan WalshFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- InvestorPlace
There’s No Need to Pull the Trigger on CRM Stock Before Earnings
During the past 15 years, Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM) has been one of the best performers in the tech world. Keep in mind that the average annual return on CRM stock was an impressive 31%.Source: Shutterstock But lately things have not been so stellar. For example, the year-to-date return is 5%. This has lagged other mature tech companies like Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Adobe (NADAQ:ADBE) and even IBM (NYSE:IBM).OK then, might Salesforce stock be an opportunity for investors now? Is this the right entry point? Well, perhaps so. In fact, we'll get more details on Thursday on how things are tracking as the company will report its fiscal second-quarter results.InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading TipsHere's a look at the Wall Street expectations: * For revenues, the consensus forecast is for $3.95 billion, up 20.4% from the same period a year ago. Keep in mind that CRM's own forecast is for a range of $3.94 billion to $3.95 billion. * Wall Street is looking for earnings to hit 47 cents a share. This compares to 39 cents a share a year ago.As for the prior quarter, CRM posted revenues of $3.74 billion, up 24% on a year-over-year basis. There was also a nice 34% jump in operating cash flows to $1.97 billion. * 10 Undervalued Stocks With Breakout Potential What's more, the company announced full-year guidance on revenues of $16.10 billion to $16.25 billion, for a growth rate of 21% to 22%. An Eventual QuarterThe biggest event for CRM stock during the quarter was the $15 billion acquisition of Tableau, a top player in the analytics space. The deal is actually the largest in the company's history.Founded in 2003, Tableau focused on a new approach to analytics, with an attempt to disrupt the dominant legacy companies in the industry like IBM, SAP (NYSE:SAP) and Oracle (NYSE:ORCL). At the heart of the platform was a focus on interactive data visualization that seamlessly integrated with a myriad of databases and spreadsheets.As for CRM, Tableau will become a key part of the Customer 360 analytics system. The deal will also provide a nice boost to the top-line (last year the revenues came to $1.16 billion).But of course, there were other notable highlights for the quarter. Here's a look at some: * Salesforce shelled out $1.35 billion to acquire ClickSoftware Technologies, which is a provider of field service and workplace systems. The company will become part of the Service Cloud. * A report from Forrester (NASDAQ:FORR) quantified the total economic impact and benefits of Salesforce Lightning for the Service Cloud. The result: there was a 475% return on investment over a three year period for a typical customer. * Gartner (NYSE:IT) reported that Salesforce was positioned as a leader in its 2019 Magic Quadrant for Multiexperience Development Platforms. Bottom Line for the CRM Stock PriceSalesforce.com has a knack for beating its numbers. And this upcoming report should be no different. If anything, the Tableau deal should be a help (at least for the guidance).But the dealmaking will also be critical for the long-term of CRM stock. The focus on data companies is spot-on since this allows for the leveraging of next-generation technologies, especially AI (Artificial Intelligence).In the meantime, Salesforce remains dominant in its core areas like CRM, service/support and marketing.Then again, when it comes to CRM stock, it may not be realistic to expect the kinds of standout returns of prior years. The company is much more mature nowadays and it is getting tougher to gin up organic growth.Regardless though, CRM still looks like a good choice for a core holding for investors that want exposure to enterprise categories like the cloud and AI.Tom Taulli is the author of the book, Artificial Intelligence Basics: A Non-Technical Introduction. Follow him on Twitter at @ttaulli. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. More From InvestorPlace * 2 Toxic Pot Stocks You Should Avoid * 10 Cheap Dividend Stocks to Load Up On * The 10 Biggest Losers from Q2 Earnings * 5 Dependable Dividend Stocks to Buy The post There's No Need to Pull the Trigger on CRM Stock Before Earnings appeared first on InvestorPlace.
- TechCrunch
The five great reasons to attend TechCrunch’s Enterprise show Sept. 5 in SF
The vast enterprise tech category is Silicon Valley’s richest, and today it’spoised to change faster than ever before
- Bloomberg
AI Startup Plans IPO at Value of Over $1 Billion -- in China
(Bloomberg) -- The promise of artificial intelligence has yet to translate into big business. Now Kai-Fu Lee, a prominent venture capitalist in China and founder of Sinovation Ventures, says his firm’s new startup should be able to reach $100 million in revenue next year and go public the year after.AInnovation, established in March 2018, develops artificial intelligence products for companies in industries such as retail, manufacturing, and finance. Its customers include Mars Inc., Carlsberg A/S, Nestle SA, Foxconn Technology Group, China Everbright Bank Co. and Postal Savings Bank of China Co.Chief Executive Officer Hocking Xu, a veteran of International Business Machines Corp. and SAP SE, has hired staff that work with traditional companies to figure out how to take advantage of AI in their operations. AInnovation is on track to hit $100 million in revenue within two years of its founding, the fastest pace yet for such a startup, Lee said.“We took the approach of ‘Let’s take some of the best business people and let’s target the industries which need AI the most’,” he said.Lee figures AInnovation will be able to go public in less than two years at a valuation of $1 billion to $2 billion. The firm has raised about $70 million so far from Sinovation, CICC ALPHA and Chengwei Capital. Since the company was funded with yuan, it would most likely list domestically, either on China’s new NASDAQ-like Star market, or on the country’s ChiNext.For retail companies, AInnovation sells products including a smart vending machine that opens with facial recognition and software that monitors retail shelves with image recognition. It’s created computer vision technology that detects defects on the production line for manufacturers and underwriting software and natural language processing technology for financial firms. There’s a large market in particular for technology to catch flaws early in the manufacturing process, said Jeffrey Ding, a researcher with Oxford’s Center for the Governance of AI. That effort “aligns with the Chinese government’s priorities to upgrade smart manufacturing capabilities to compete with countries like Germany and Switzerland,” he said in an email.The former president of Google China, Kai-Fu Lee founded Sinovation Ventures in 2009. It manages more than $2 billion across seven funds in U.S. and Chinese currencies. It holds shares in more than 300 companies, most of which are in China. Its investments include autonomous driving company Momenta, consumer AI chip firm Horizon Robotics Inc. and bitcoin mining and AI chip company Bitmain Technologies Ltd.In artificial intelligence, “we’re still at a very early stage in the commercialization,” Lee said. “We’re still at the equivalent of early internet portals, back when everybody was using Yahoo and there wasn’t even a Google, Amazon, or Facebook.”Global economic ructions, however, may present short-term challenges. Venture deals in China have been plummeting as investors pull back amid escalating trade tensions and slowing economic growth. The value of investments in the country tumbled 77% to $9.4 billion in the second quarter from a year earlier.“In an economy that’s slowing down, everything slows, including venture capital. There will definitely be a shakeout,” Lee said. “The positive side is that if the economy is challenging, and valuations are down, it’s a good time for us to go shopping.”Sinovation was one of the first Chinese venture capital firms with a presence in the U.S. With the trade war and the Trump administration’s tighter scrutiny of foreign investments, the firm has scaled back investments and no longer has an office in the U.S., Lee said, adding that investments in America have always been a small fraction of its overall investments.“In the long term, it’s a pity if we have to cause a total separation of two countries because one could argue that AI got to where it got because the whole world has been able to work together.”(Updates with analyst’s comment in the 9th paragraph)To contact the reporter on this story: Selina Wang in China at swang533@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Peter Elstrom, Colum MurphyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- American City Business Journals
Google Cloud continues market share battle via changes in sales team's pay
New, bonus-driven compensation plan took hold on July 1, not unlike how SAP and Oracle pay their salespeople.
- TechCrunch
The Trials and Tribulations of Experience Management with Amit Ahuja (Adobe), Julie Larson-Green (Qualtrics), Peter Reinhardt (Segment)
As companies gather more data about their customers and employees, it should theoretically improve their experience, but myriad challenges face companies as they try to pull together information from a variety of vendors across disparate systems, both in the cloud and on prem. How do you pull together a coherent picture of your customers, while respecting their privacy and overcoming the technical challenges? We'll ask a team of experts to find out.
