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Matthew Prince, co-founder and chief executive officer of Cloudflare Inc., during the Fortune Brainstorm AI conference in San Francisco, California, US, on Monday, Dec. 11, 2023. The conference gathers leaders in machine learning and artificial intelligence to assess the industry and examine new business cases for AI. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

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Cloudflare shares rose 21% in extended trading on Thursday after the web security and content distribution network provider issued results and quarterly guidance that proved more robust than analysts had projected.

Here’s how the company did, in comparison with estimates from analysts polled by LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv:

  • Earnings per share: 15 cents, adjusted, vs. 12 cents expected
  • Revenue: $362.5 million, vs. $353.1 million expected

Cloudflare’s revenue rose about 32%, consistent with growth in the third quarter, according to a statement. The company’s net loss of $27.9 million, or 8 cents per share, narrowed from $45.9 million in the year-ago quarter.

Matthew Prince, Cloudflare’s co-founder and CEO, said in the statement that Cloudflare signed its largest new customer deal and biggest renewal to date during the quarter, resulting in the highest annual contract value in corporate history. On a conference call with analysts, Prince mentioned business from the U.S. Commerce Department.

Cloudflare is working to supply software developers with graphics processing units that they can use for artificial intelligence. The company had installed GPUs in 120 cities by the end of 2023, higher than an internal target of 100, Prince said.

“By the end of 2024, we plan to have inference to GPUs deployed in nearly every city that makes up Cloudflare’s global network and within milliseconds of nearly every device connected to the Internet worldwide,” Prince said. The network had presence in over 310 cities as of Dec. 31.

The company also wants to grow by selling security services to companies and government agencies. Cyberattacks have become more common since Hamas carried out a terrorist attack in Israel in October, Prince said.

Also on Thursday, Cloudflare said Mark Anderson, a board member who was formerly CEO of Alteryx, has joined Cloudflare as president, replacing Marc Boroditsky. Private equity firms Clearlake Capital Group and Insight Partners announced in December that they would acquire Alteryx for $4.4 billion. Prince said he and co-founder and operating chief Michelle Zatlyn wouldn’t be going anywhere.

With respect to guidance, Cloudflare called for 13 cents in adjusted net earnings per share on $372.5 million to $373.5 million in revenue in the first quarter. Analysts surveyed by LSEG had expected 12 cents per share in adjusted earnings and revenue of $372.3 million.

For all of 2024, Cloudflare’s earnings outlook was higher than consensus, but the middle of the revenue range missed slightly. The company sees 58 cents to 59 cents in adjusted earnings per share and revenue from $1.648 billion to $1.652 billion. Analysts polled by LSEG were looking for 56 cents in adjusted earnings per share and $1.652 billion in revenue.

Excluding the after-hours move, Cloudflare stock is up about 8% so far this year, while the S&P 500 has gained about 5% during the same period.

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Super Micro hires new auditor to maintain Nasdaq listing; shares pop 23%

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Super Micro hires new auditor to maintain Nasdaq listing; shares pop 23%

Charles Liang, chief executive officer of Super Micro Computer Inc., during the Computex conference in Taipei, Taiwan, on Wednesday, June 5, 2024. The trade show runs through June 7. 

Annabelle Chih | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Embattled server maker Super Micro Computer said on Monday that it’s hired BDO as its new auditor and submitted a plan to Nasdaq detailing its efforts to regain compliance with the exchange. The shares jumped 23% in extended trading.

“This is an important next step to bring our financial statements current, an effort we are pursuing with both diligence and urgency,” Super Micro CEO Charles Liang said in a statement.

Super Micro is late in filing its 2024 year-end report with the SEC, and said earlier this month that it was looking for a new accountant after its previous auditor, Ernst & Young, stepped down in October. Ernst & Young was new to the job, having just replaced Deloitte & Touche as Super Micro’s accounting firm in March 2023.

Super Micro said it told Nasdaq that it believes it will be able to file its annual report for the year ended June 30, and quarterly report for the period ended Sept. 30. The company said it will remain listed on the Nasdaq pending the exchange’s “review of the compliance plan.”

Shares of Super Micro soared more than twentyfold over a two year period from early 2022 until their peak in March of this year. But the stock has been hammered on troubling news about its compliance with Nasdaq. Once valued at about $70 billion, the company’s market cap was at $12.6 billion at the close on Monday, following a 16% rally during regular trading.

Super Micro has been one of the primary beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence boom, due to its relationship with Nvidia. Sales last fiscal year more than doubled to $15 billion.

On Monday, Super Micro announced that it was selling products featuring Nvidia’s next-generation AI chip called Blackwell. The company competes with vendors like Dell and Hewlett Packard Enterprise in packaging up Nvidia AI chips for other companies to access.

Super Micro was added to the S&P 500 in March, reflecting its rapidly growing business and then-soaring stock price. Less than two weeks after the index changes were announced, Super Micro reached its closing high of $118.81.

The troubles began within months. In August, Super Micro said it wouldn’t file its annual report with the SEC on time. Noted short seller Hindenburg Research then disclosed a short position in the company, and said in a report that it identified “fresh evidence of accounting manipulation.” The Wall Street Journal later reported that the Department of Justice was at the early stages of a probe into the company.

The month after announcing its report delay, Super Micro said it had received a notification from the Nasdaq, indicating that the delay in the filing of its annual report meant the company wasn’t in compliance with the exchange’s listing rules. Super Micro said the Nasdaq’s rules allowed the company 60 days to file its report or submit a plan to regain compliance. Based on that timeframe, the deadline was Monday.

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Canva hires former Zoom CFO Kelly Steckelberg to run finance ahead of expected IPO

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Canva hires former Zoom CFO Kelly Steckelberg to run finance ahead of expected IPO

Kelly Steckelberg attends an Evening from the Heart LA 2022 Gala hosted by the John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health at Valley Relics Museum in Van Nuys, California, on May 5, 2022.

Araya Doheny | Getty Images

Canva, a high-valued design software startup that competes with Adobe, said Monday that it hired Kelly Steckelberg as its chief financial officer, five years after she helped take Zoom public and then guided the company through its Covid-19 pandemic surge.

Founded in 2013, Canva was valued recently at $32 billion, a drop from its peak of $40 billion in 2021.

“Kelly’s impressive track record as a strong leader and strategic thinker, combined with her proven expertise in scaling enterprise companies, make her the perfect addition to our leadership bench,” Canva said in an emailed statement.

Canva is generating about $2.5 billion in annualized revenue and boasts 220 million monthly users. The company is widely viewed as a top initial public offering candidate for venture-backed tech companies after a historically slow period for new offerings dating back to early 2022.

On Monday, ServiceTitan, which sells software for the trades, filed to list on the Nasdaq. Cerebras, a maker of artificial intelligence chips, has been on file since late September, and online lender Klarna said last week that it has confidentially filed its IPO paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

A Canva spokesperson declined to comment on the startup’s timeline for an IPO.

Steckelberg held financial positions at Cisco and was CEO of online dating company Zoosk before joining Zoom in 2017. Steckelberg is based in Austin, Texas, while Canva has its headquarters in Sydney, Australia.

Zoom went public with Steckelberg’s help in 2019. The video-chat company saw its market cap soar to upward of $160 billion in October 2020, early in the Covid-19 pandemic, as users working from home swarmed to the app. Zoom has since lost more than 85% of its value.

Steckelberg announced her departure from Zoom in August after seven years at the company. Last month, former Microsoft executive Michelle Chang replaced Steckelberg as Zoom’s CFO.

Canva’s previous finance chief Damien Singh resigned in February after the company said it was conducting an internal investigation surrounding inappropriate behavior.

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Cloud software company ServiceTitan files to go public on Nasdaq

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Cloud software company ServiceTitan files to go public on Nasdaq

ServiceTitan offices in Draper, Utah.

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ServiceTitan, a company that sells software to contractors such as plumbers and roofers, on Monday filed to go public on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “TTAN.”

The filing suggests that investors could be getting more interested in next-generation software companies. Just a few, including Reddit and Rubrik, debuted on public markets in the U.S. this year, and chipmaker Cerebras filed for an initial public offering. There were basically no tech initial public offerings in 2021 or 2022 as central bankers pushed up interest rates to flight inflation, making investors less willing to bet on money-losing challengers.

Based in Glendale, California, ServiceTitan offers cloud software for advertising, scheduling jobs, dispatching, producing invoices and taking payments. It had a $35.7 million net loss on $193 million in revenue in the quarter that ended on July 31, according to the filing. Revenue was up about 24% year over year, and the quarterly loss had narrowed from almost $52 million.

ServiceTitan’s revenue growth rate will stand out for people investing in cloud stocks, who have seen rates sag with few new public companies in the sector. The average growth rate for Bessemer’s Nasdaq Emerging Cloud Index, the basis for the WisdomTree Cloud Computing Fund, is 16.6%.

The company was originally founded in 2007 by Ara Mahdessian and Vahe Kuzoyan, whose fathers were both residential contractors. While most ServiceTitan customers are small and medium-sized businesses, it has started focusing more on selling products to big companies and construction customers, according to the filing.

ServiceTitan plans to keep up to 5% of shares in the IPO for eligible clients, the founders’ friends and family members and others through a directed share program.

Investors include Battery Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Iconiq and TPG. Iconiq on its own controlled 24% of the compan’s Class A shares.

Competitors include Salesforce and SAP, along with specialty companies such as HouseCall Pro, Jobber and Workwave.

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and Citigroup are among the company’s IPO underwriters.

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