Latest / What the Flux / AMP's crypto investment | Adobe's price plummet | Foxtel's new owner?
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: This is what the flux.
- 0:06Speaker 2: I'm Brett now justin and its Monday, the sixteenth of December.
- 0:09Speaker 1: Jesse Wait Westpac reckons that cost of living challenges may
- 0:12Speaker 1: have hit their peak and now things are getting easier
- 0:15Speaker 1: at all. That's because the number of mortgage customers experiencing
- 0:18Speaker 1: hardship hit a high of nearly twenty thousand customers in
- 0:21Speaker 1: June and it reduced to seventeen and a half thousand
- 0:24Speaker 1: in November. Whack. On top of that, consumer sentiment at
- 0:27Speaker 1: its highest level in two and a half years, and
- 0:29Speaker 1: everything is coming up or Westpac.
- 0:32Speaker 2: Except for their financial results. We've absolutely loved being in
- 0:36Speaker 2: your ears while you make coffee, jump on the train,
- 0:38Speaker 2: or even pump some iron this year. But this will
- 0:40Speaker 2: be our last week of the pod for twenty twenty four.
- 0:42Speaker 2: Don't worry. We'll be back fit and firing on January twentieth,
- 0:45Speaker 2: twenty twenty five. But if you're craving a little bit
- 0:47Speaker 2: of flux in your life over that period, don't worry,
- 0:50Speaker 2: because the flux app ain't going nowhere. There's plenty of
- 0:52Speaker 2: business use finance courses and budgeting tools to keep you
- 0:55Speaker 2: occupied over the lonely summer months.
- 0:58Speaker 1: Three refreshing stories TODAYI boy, let's do it for our first.
- 1:02Speaker 1: AMP has become the first major super fund to invest
- 1:06Speaker 1: in crypto after investing twenty seven million dollars into bitcoin.
- 1:09Speaker 2: I want to be the fly on the wall for
- 1:11Speaker 2: that investment, manager's pitched to the investment committee. Be man,
- 1:13Speaker 2: so tell me more, all right.
- 1:14Speaker 1: Jazi boy. AMP is one of Australia's oldest financial services companies.
- 1:18Speaker 2: It was founded in eighteen forty nine and actually stands
- 1:21Speaker 2: for Australian Mutual Provident Society. Very sexy night.
- 1:25Speaker 1: And right now. AMPS around fifty seven billion dollars worth
- 1:29Speaker 1: of super assets under management.
- 1:30Speaker 2: So now they thought, why not give bitcoin a bit
- 1:33Speaker 2: of a whirl?
- 1:33Speaker 1: Yeah, well they just announced the investment.
- 1:35Speaker 2: Now.
- 1:36Speaker 1: They had invested twenty seven million into bitcoin back in
- 1:39Speaker 1: May when.
- 1:40Speaker 2: The price was sixty to seventy thousand US dollars.
- 1:42Speaker 1: This is interesting because other super funds like Australian Super
- 1:45Speaker 1: and Australian Retirement Trust have specifically dismissed crypto investments.
- 1:49Speaker 2: Yeah, they reckon crypto is just too volatile for.
- 1:52Speaker 1: Super funds and doesn't offer a yield.
- 1:54Speaker 2: And they man this step by AMP and the thirty
- 1:57Speaker 2: percent uplift in bitcoin so far might just drive other
- 2:00Speaker 2: super funds to dip their toes in the crypto waters too.
- 2:03Speaker 1: Mm so what is the key learning here?
- 2:05Speaker 2: Crypto can't be called a fringe asset class anymore, especially
- 2:08Speaker 2: when traditionally cautious industries like super funds are getting in
- 2:12Speaker 2: on the autiboy.
- 2:13Speaker 1: Let's be real here. AMP only allocated a tiny portion
- 2:16Speaker 1: of its investment portfolio into bitcoin.
- 2:18Speaker 2: Yeah, we're talking just point zero five percent, so it's
- 2:21Speaker 2: not meaningful from a risk perspective. And then, man, might
- 2:24Speaker 2: I remind you that historically Australian super funds were hesitant
- 2:27Speaker 2: to invest in venture capital two.
- 2:28Speaker 1: Yep, they thought the risk were too high and the
- 2:30Speaker 1: funds were illiquid.
- 2:32Speaker 2: But in twenty fourteen, host Plass made its first investment
- 2:34Speaker 2: in the VC space, where they happened to invest in
- 2:36Speaker 2: a range of funds and a small little startup called Canvas.
- 2:39Speaker 1: This grew from a ninety four million dollar investment to
- 2:42Speaker 1: over one point nine billion dollars in value.
- 2:44Speaker 2: And since then other super funds like Australian Super and
- 2:47Speaker 2: HESTER have also invested in vcs and directly into startups. Two.
- 2:50Speaker 1: So Jazi boy, While AMP is the first major super
- 2:53Speaker 1: fund to invest in crypto. The changing landscape makes me
- 2:56Speaker 1: think it may not be the last for our set.
- 3:00Speaker 1: Second story, Adobe has seen at share price plummet after
- 3:03Speaker 1: concerns its AI tools aren't being monetized as fast as expected.
- 3:08Speaker 2: Now you can just hear the dramatic music in the
- 3:10Speaker 2: bodroom as the competitors creep up um tell me.
- 3:13Speaker 1: Well, well, josy boy, Adobe is the design software powerhouse
- 3:16Speaker 1: behind Photoshop, Illustrator and Premiere pro Man.
- 3:20Speaker 2: Don't forget Adobe actually created the PDF format back in
- 3:23Speaker 2: the nineties, Is.
- 3:24Speaker 1: That correct, josy boy, little expert.
- 3:27Speaker 2: But you didn't know you'd be thanking Adobe every single
- 3:29Speaker 2: time you open a file.
- 3:31Speaker 1: But gone of the days when designers couldn't live without Adobe,
- 3:33Speaker 1: because hello Canva, and hello Figma, and a whole lot
- 3:36Speaker 1: of other competitors too.
- 3:37Speaker 2: And now, b man, Adobe stock has dropped by more
- 3:39Speaker 2: than thirteen percent because it released weaker than expected revenue projection.
- 3:43Speaker 1: You see, Adobe released a new AI tool called Firefly
- 3:47Speaker 1: in March of twenty twenty three, and.
- 3:49Speaker 2: Well, Camva's been catching up to Adobe's traditional design suite.
- 3:52Speaker 2: Adobe was saying we're way ahead because check out our
- 3:55Speaker 2: fancy AI, but b Man Not only have Adobe struggled
- 3:58Speaker 2: to grow the AI product, and even Google have released
- 4:01Speaker 2: their own AI design offering too check. On top of that,
- 4:04Speaker 2: new players like Stability, AI, mid Journey and Runway, and
- 4:07Speaker 2: investors are kind of concerned that Adobe might not find
- 4:10Speaker 2: a way to actually monetize this product.
- 4:12Speaker 1: So what is the key learning here?
- 4:14Speaker 2: After more than two years in the market, AI is
- 4:16Speaker 2: now seen as a baseline expectation for software companies rather
- 4:19Speaker 2: than a unique selling point For Adobe.
- 4:21Speaker 1: This means that having AI features like Firefly is not
- 4:24Speaker 1: enough yet.
- 4:25Speaker 2: The challenge for Adobe is they haven't yet been able
- 4:27Speaker 2: to truly monetize their AI functionality.
- 4:30Speaker 1: Which it promised to be a game changer factory Man.
- 4:32Speaker 2: Adobe's R and D expenses hit two point six billion
- 4:35Speaker 2: US dollars for the nine months ending September twenty twenty three, with.
- 4:38Speaker 1: The bulk going into the AI development and right now
- 4:41Speaker 1: investors are getting tired of waiting, so it's not surprising
- 4:44Speaker 1: that Adobe share price has been whacked.
- 4:48Speaker 2: For our third and final story, Foxtell is looking more
- 4:51Speaker 2: and more likely to be sold as execs from a
- 4:53Speaker 2: British sports platform meet with the Fox Dog team to
- 4:56Speaker 2: sign on the dotted line.
- 4:58Speaker 1: As your favorite pop star Jessejson as Juzzy Boy. It
- 5:00Speaker 1: is all about the price tag. So what is going
- 5:03Speaker 1: on here?
- 5:03Speaker 2: So man back into today. Foxtel was the go to
- 5:06Speaker 2: PTV source.
- 5:07Speaker 1: Your Fox eightsy comedy channel, cartoon network, anyone, back when.
- 5:11Speaker 2: The likes of Netflix and YouTube and TikTok bare existed
- 5:14Speaker 2: or didn't exist at all.
- 5:15Speaker 1: But Juzzy Boy. Since these competitors stepped in, Foxteale subscriber
- 5:18Speaker 1: numbers have been rapidly declining.
- 5:20Speaker 2: Particularly over the past five years.
- 5:22Speaker 1: In fact, there are now only one point four million
- 5:24Speaker 1: paying Fox Steale subscribers in Australia today.
- 5:26Speaker 2: And that's why Foxdale rolled our Ko for sport, Binge
- 5:29Speaker 2: for movies, Flash for news.
- 5:30Speaker 1: But now the joint is Foxtel, News Corp and Telstra.
- 5:35Speaker 1: They won out and now a British streaming platform called
- 5:38Speaker 1: Dezone spelt d a z N is in the box
- 5:41Speaker 1: seat to buy foxtell. Given previous acquisition talks fell over
- 5:45Speaker 1: because of price, it seems like News Corp may be
- 5:47Speaker 1: willing to compromise a little bit more now.
- 5:49Speaker 2: Because the window to receive a fair return is quickly closing.
- 5:52Speaker 1: Yeah, so what is the key learning here.
- 5:54Speaker 2: When evaluating whether to sell, a declining company's owners face
- 5:58Speaker 2: a classic dilemma, cling to pass valuations or accept a
- 6:01Speaker 2: deal that reflects today's reality.
- 6:03Speaker 1: Fox Sale's previous dominance in PATV created a high standard
- 6:07Speaker 1: for its valuation.
- 6:07Speaker 2: But here's a thing. Dominance in PATV is pretty worthless
- 6:10Speaker 2: today and even more so in the future.
- 6:13Speaker 1: So clinging to that previous success can lead to overestimating
- 6:16Speaker 1: its worth in today's market.
- 6:18Speaker 2: And the man let's not forget back. In twenty twenty,
- 6:20Speaker 2: a US cable entrepreneur offered two billion US sellers for
- 6:23Speaker 2: Foxtel and it was rejected.
- 6:24Speaker 1: And now McQuary group's research team reckons Foxtel is valued
- 6:27Speaker 1: at around seven hundred and thirty million dollars much so.
- 6:31Speaker 2: It looks like fox sell may need to take this
- 6:32Speaker 2: deal from deown and run buck day. Just a quick reminder,
- 6:36Speaker 2: we'll be wrapping up this Friday for the rest of
- 6:38Speaker 2: the year, but if you want all the action, it
- 6:40Speaker 2: is going all into the Flux app. There's plenty of
- 6:42Speaker 2: business news, finance courses, and budgeting tools to keep you
- 6:45Speaker 2: busy over the summer period. To make sure to download
- 6:47Speaker 2: the Flux app and check it all
- 6:48Speaker 1: Out, Thanks for listening, and we'll see you on Wednesday.