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Assaf Rappaport, Wiz, on Centre Stage during day one of Web Summit 2021 at the Altice Arena in Lisbon, Portugal. 

Harry Murphy | Sportsfile | Getty Images

Google’s acquisition of cybersecurity startup Wiz could be a turning point for an uncertain IPO market and a mergers and acquisitions environment aching from a slowdown in deal activity.

Alphabet announced Tuesday that it plans to buy the Israeli cybersecurity startup for $32 billion in its biggest acquisition ever. The deal came months after an initial $23 billion offer fell through and Wiz CEO Assaf Rappaport touted plans for an initial public offering.

While deal activity has slowed from its 2021 heyday, appetite has begun to pick up. 

SailPoint went public in February and CoreWeave, which sells Nvidia’s AI processors, said in a Thursday filing that it plans to raise up to $2.7 billion in its IPO that’s expected this week. Ticket vendor StubHub filed for an IPO Friday.

Wiz’s blockbuster deal could signal the opening of the floodgates for the IPO and M&A markets. 

Cybersecurity companies look particularly poised to win as companies hunt for ways to shield their highly profitable business models. CB Insights on Tuesday said cybersecurity solutions are one of the top acquisition target areas for 2025.

“Having a more complete offering for securing workloads in the cloud — that’s the core, the rationale behind [the Wiz] deal,” said Merritt Maxim, Forrester vice president and research director.

AI driving demand for more cybersecurity

The proliferation of artificial intelligence and the transition to the cloud has amplified the need for cybersecurity solutions.

More adept hacking schemes have accelerated since OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, expediting the need for cutting-edge solutions to fend off attackers. That’s made cybersecurity a key target area for companies looking to protect their business models, said Neil Barlow, partner at the law firm Clifford Chance.

“Hacks and phishing could effectively cause a business to crash,” said Barlow, who focuses on private equity M&A. “This is a business that is fundamental to operating, so cybersecurity has been a resilient area for quite some time.”

While megacap technology giant’s haven’t shied away from cybersecurity investments, AI tailwinds have forced companies to beef up their offerings. Google’s Wiz acquisition could force rival Amazon to make its own acquisition, Maxim said. Potential targets include startups Aqua Security, Orca Security and Sysdig.

“The Google-Wiz tie-up does give them some capabilities that make them stronger than AWS in some areas,” Maxim said. “AWS could target acquisitions to potentially bring their solution closer to Google.”

What’s next for the IPO market

Wiz’s mammoth buyout may dampen near-term sentiment for cybersecurity startups with IPO aspirations, but experts told CNBC they anticipate a pickup in the second half of the year.

One of those contenders is malware and phishing software maker Proofpoint, which told CNBC in October that it was exploring an IPO in the next 12 to 18 months. The company went private in 2021 in a $12.3 billion acquisition by private equity firm Thoma Bravo.

Forrester’s Maxim said Proofpoint and Illumio are companies ripe for IPOs in the coming months. Illumio, which offers data center and cloud security, was a member of CNBC’s Disruptor 50 list in 2017 and 2018.

Netskope, which also offers cloud security, is another company being closely watched for an IPO, said Brianne Lynch, head of market insight at EquityZen. Netskope told The Wall Street Journal last year that it was planning an IPO in the second half of 2025. The company may start to feel pressure from early investors hunting for liquidity 13 years after its founding, Lynch said.

Snyk, a cybersecurity startup founded about a decade ago, has also alluded to a public offering next year. The company was last valued at $7.4 billion and CEO Peter McKay said in a post last year that Snyk had crossed $300 million in annual recurring revenues.

The big question is whether now is the rip-the-band-aid off moment for companies that decide to IPO or whether market volatility will cause companies to once again kick the can down the road, Lynch said. 

Sailpoint is a good setup for tech IPOs in 2025, says Manhattan Venture's Santosh Rao

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Doordash announces $1.2 billion SevenRooms deal, misses revenue expectations

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Doordash announces .2 billion SevenRooms deal, misses revenue expectations

A DoorDash sign is pictured on a restaurant on the day they hold their IPO in New York, December 9, 2020.

Carlo Allegri | Reuters

Doordash on Tuesday announced the $1.2 billion acquisition of restaurant booking platform SevenRooms and reported first-quarter revenue that missed expectations.

Shares fell about 4% following the news.

Here’s how the company did, based on LSEG expectations:

  • Earnings per share: 44 cents adjusted vs. 39 cents expected
  • Revenue: $3.03 billion vs. $3.09 billion expected

Doordash said the all-cash acquisition of SevenRooms, a New York City-based data platform for restaurants and hotels to manage booking information, will close in the second half of 2025.

British food delivery service Deliveroo said Tuesday that they have agreed to a takeover offer from American rival Doordash worth $3.9 billion.

“We believe both SevenRooms and Deliveroo will expand our ability to build world class services that increase our potential to grow local commerce and support our financial goals,” Doordash said in a release.

Doordash reported total orders of 732 million for the quarter, an 18% increase over the same period a year ago. Analysts polled by StreetAccount expected 732.7 million.

The company said it expects second-quarter adjusted EBITDA of $600 million to $650 million. Analysts polled by StreetAccount expected $639 million.

Read more CNBC tech news

“So far in 2025, consumer demand on our marketplaces has remained strong, with engagement across different consumer cohorts and types that we believe is consistent with typical seasonal patterns,” the company said.

Doordash reported $193 million in net income for Q1 2025, or 44 cents per share. The company had a net loss of $23 million, or a net loss of 6 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago.

Doordash noted growth in the grocery delivery category, citing “accelerating average spend per grocery consumer and increasing average spend on perishables.”

The company did not mention tariffs as a factor in the financial outlook, but did note that an increased international presence leaves it open to “geopolitical and currency risks.”

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DoorDash to buy British food delivery firm Deliveroo for $3.9 billion in overseas push

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DoorDash to buy British food delivery firm Deliveroo for .9 billion in overseas push

A Deliveroo rider near Victoria station in London, England, on March 31, 2021.

Dan Kitwood | Getty Images

LONDON — British food delivery firm Deliveroo on Monday said it has agreed to a takeover offer from American rival DoorDash that values the company at £2.9 billion ($3.9 billion).

Deliveroo, which lets users order hot meals and groceries via an app, said its board agreed to an offer from DoorDash to acquire all issued and to be issued shares in the company for 180 pence a share.

That marks a 44% premium to Deliveroo’s closing price on April 4, the last business day prior to DoorDash’s initial offer letter.

Deliveroo shares jumped to a three-year high last week after the company confirmed it had received a takeover offer from DoorDash.

The transaction values Deliveroo at £2.9 billion on a fully diluted basis, the company said.

DoorDash said that the financial terms of the acquisition were final and would not be increased unless a third party steps in with a rival bid.

“I could not be more excited by the prospect of what DoorDash and Deliveroo will be able to accomplish together. We’ll cover more than 40 countries with a combined population of more than 1 billion people, enabling us to provide more local businesses with the tools and technology they need to thrive,” said Tony Xu, CEO and Co-founder of DoorDash.

International expansion

The acquisition deal marks an end to Deliveroo’s tumultuous ride as a public company.

Once viewed as a British tech darling, Deliveroo saw its shares tank 30% in 2021 in one of the worst trading debuts on the London Stock Exchange. Shares have continued to fall from that point and are down more than 50% from the firm’s £3.90 IPO price.

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Temu and Shein face massive tariffs. But don’t count them out of the U.S. e-tail scene, experts say

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Temu and Shein face massive tariffs. But don't count them out of the U.S. e-tail scene, experts say

Photo illustration of the Shein app on the App Store reflected in the Temu logo.

Stefani Reynolds | Afp | Getty Images

The closure of a trade loophole and prohibitive tariffs on China have upended Temu and Shein’s business model in the United States. And yet the e-commerce companies are likely to remain a dominant force in American online retailing, experts suggest.  

On Friday, the de minimis rule — a policy that had exempted U.S. imports worth $800 from trade tariffs — officially closed for shipments from China. This has seen Temu and Shein exposed to duties as high as 120% or a flat fee of $100, set to rise to $200 in June.

The small-package tariff exemption had been key to the companies’ ability to maintain budget prices on the merchandise they ship from China. Now that it’s gone, prices on Temu and Shein have been surging, with the former ending direct shipments from outside the U.S. altogether. 

The change will be welcomed by many detractors of de minimis, among them U.S. lawmakers, labor unions and retailers, who have argued that Temu and Shein abused the exemption to undercut local businesses and flood the country with illicit and counterfeit products. 

But despite the new trade challenges that Temu and Shein face, ecommerce and supply chain experts told CNBC that the companies are still capable of competing with their rivals in the U.S. 

“Don’t count them out … Not at all. These kinds of Chinese e-commerce apps are very adept and agile. They have contingency plans in place and have taken the necessary steps to cover the tariffs from a margin perspective,” said Deborah Weinswig, CEO and founder of Coresight Research.

“I personally believe, if anything, [America’s e-commerce] game has been accelerating in favor of Temu and Shein … I wouldn’t be surprised if the competitiveness gap actually continues to widen,” added Weinswig, whose research and advisory firm works with clients across tech, retail and supply chains.

Contingencies in place 

The loss of the de minimis exemption had long been anticipated, with U.S. President Donald Trump temporarily closing it in February. In preparation, Temu and Shein had been accelerating localization strategies for the U.S.

Scott Miller, CEO of e-commerce consulting firm pdPlus, told CNBC that Shein and Temu will continue to onboard goods from American sellers onto their apps to protect them from tariffs. 

“Many of the current sellers on Temu and Shein are located in China or countries nearby, but not all. Local U.S. companies have been joining these platforms at an accelerating pace … several of our clients have onboarded or began the process of onboarding in just the past few months,” he said. 

While margins for more localized brands and other sellers won’t be as high as those for China-based sellers on the platforms, they can be competitive, he said. 

He added that in the case of Temu, vendors are attracted to lower fees, lighter competition and greater assistance with onboarding and setting up sales channels compared with what Amazon offers. 

Temu, Shein raising prices ahead of Trump administration ending 'de minimis' rule: Report

In recent days, Temu, which is owned by Chinese e-commerce giant PDD Holdings, has begun exclusively offering goods shipped from local warehouses to U.S. shoppers.

Many of those goods are still sourced from China but then shipped in bulk to U.S. warehouses, according to experts. While these bulk items are subject to tariffs, they also benefit from economies of scale. 

This development is likely to see the variety of products on Temu scaled back, said Henry Jin, an associate professor of supply chain management at Miami University. However, he added, Temu is likely to resume direct shipments from China, depending on the outcome of the trade war between the U.S. and China. 

Shein, meanwhile, has leaned into supply chain expansion, building manufacturing operations in countries such as Turkey, Mexico and Brazil, and reportedly plans to shift to Vietnam.

The company appears to still be shipping directly from China and likely has more room to absorb tariffs because of its “sky-high” margins in its core fast-fashion business, Jin said.

“If there’s one thing that Chinese companies are good at, it’s operating on a razor thin margin in an intensely competitive, if not adverse environment … they find every scrap that they can to survive,” he added.

Competitive prices?

Contingency plans aside, experts agree that Trump’s trade policy will continue to affect prices on Temu and Shein. The companies first announced they were raising prices in mid-April to counter tariffs.

According to data from Coresight, prices across shopping categories on Shein rose between 5% and 50% in the latter half of April, with the sharpest rises seen in toys and games and beauty and health. 

However, many e-commerce experts remain confident that Temu and Shein will continue to prove price-competitive. 

Coresight’s Weinswig said the two companies have previously been able to offer products at a third of the prices on Amazon for comparable goods. So, even if they more than double the prices to absorb the impacts of tariffs, many goods could remain cheaper than those on American e-commerce sites and retailers. 

Jason Wong, who works in product logistics for Temu in Hong Kong, noted this dynamic when speaking to CNBC last month, likening Temu to a dollar store. If prices at the dollar store go from $1 to $2, it’s still a dollar store, he said. 

Furthermore, Trump’s trade tariffs on China and other trade partners have also affected American retailers and e-commerce sites like Amazon. 

Other advantages

When Forever 21 filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this year, it blamed Shein and Temu’s use of the de minimis exemption, which it said “undercut” its business. 

But experts say that exclusively attributing the success of Shein and Temu to that trade loophole misses many of the other factors that have made them smash hits in the U.S.

According to Anand Kumar, associate director of research at Coresight Research, Temu and Shein owe a lot of their success to their very agile supply chains that adapt fast to consumer trends. 

For example, Shein’s small-batch production — in which product styles are initially launched in limited quantities, typically around 100-200 items — allows it to test and scale products efficiently. 

Shein's Donald Tang: We are not fast fashion but fashion on-demand

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