AMP's crypto investment | Adobe's price plummet | Foxtel's new owner?

This is what the flux.

I'm Brett now justin and its Monday, the sixteenth of December.

Jesse Wait Westpac reckons that cost of living challenges may have hit their peak and now things are getting easier at all. That's because the number of mortgage customers experiencing hardship hit a high of nearly twenty thousand customers in June and it reduced to seventeen and a half thousand in November. Whack. On top of that, consumer sentiment at its highest level in two and a half years, and everything is coming up or Westpac.

Except for their financial results. We've absolutely loved being in your ears while you make coffee, jump on the train, or even pump some iron this year. But this will be our last week of the pod for twenty twenty four. Don't worry. We'll be back fit and firing on January twentieth, twenty twenty five. But if you're craving a little bit of flux in your life over that period, don't worry,

Three refreshing stories TODAYI boy, let's do it for our first. AMP has become the first major super fund to invest in crypto after investing twenty seven million dollars into bitcoin.

I want to be the fly on the wall for that investment, manager's pitched to the investment committee. Be man, so tell me more, all right.

Jazi boy. AMP is one of Australia's oldest financial services companies.

It was founded in eighteen forty nine and actually stands for Australian Mutual Provident Society. Very sexy night.

And right now. AMPS around fifty seven billion dollars worth of super assets under management.

So now they thought, why not give bitcoin a bit of a whirl?

Yeah, well they just announced the investment.

Now.

They had invested twenty seven million into bitcoin back in May when.

The price was sixty to seventy thousand US dollars.

This is interesting because other super funds like Australian Super and Australian Retirement Trust have specifically dismissed crypto investments.

Yeah, they reckon crypto is just too volatile for.

Super funds and doesn't offer a yield.

And they man this step by AMP and the thirty percent uplift in bitcoin so far might just drive other super funds to dip their toes in the crypto waters too.

Mm so what is the key learning here?

Crypto can't be called a fringe asset class anymore, especially when traditionally cautious industries like super funds are getting in on the autiboy.

Let's be real here. AMP only allocated a tiny portion of its investment portfolio into bitcoin.

Yeah, we're talking just point zero five percent, so it's not meaningful from a risk perspective. And then, man, might I remind you that historically Australian super funds were hesitant to invest in venture capital two.

Yep, they thought the risk were too high and the funds were illiquid.

But in twenty fourteen, host Plass made its first investment in the VC space, where they happened to invest in a range of funds and a small little startup called Canvas.

This grew from a ninety four million dollar investment to over one point nine billion dollars in value.

And since then other super funds like Australian Super and HESTER have also invested in vcs and directly into startups. Two.

So Jazi boy, While AMP is the first major super fund to invest in crypto. The changing landscape makes me think it may not be the last for our set. Second story, Adobe has seen at share price plummet after concerns its AI tools aren't being monetized as fast as expected.

Now you can just hear the dramatic music in the bodroom as the competitors creep up um tell me.

Well, well, josy boy, Adobe is the design software powerhouse behind Photoshop, Illustrator and Premiere pro Man.

Don't forget Adobe actually created the PDF format back in the nineties, Is.

That correct, josy boy, little expert.

But you didn't know you'd be thanking Adobe every single time you open a file.

But gone of the days when designers couldn't live without Adobe, because hello Canva, and hello Figma, and a whole lot of other competitors too.

And now, b man, Adobe stock has dropped by more than thirteen percent because it released weaker than expected revenue projection.

You see, Adobe released a new AI tool called Firefly in March of twenty twenty three, and.

Well, Camva's been catching up to Adobe's traditional design suite. Adobe was saying we're way ahead because check out our fancy AI, but b Man Not only have Adobe struggled to grow the AI product, and even Google have released their own AI design offering too check. On top of that, new players like Stability, AI, mid Journey and Runway, and investors are kind of concerned that Adobe might not find a way to actually monetize this product.

So what is the key learning here?

After more than two years in the market, AI is now seen as a baseline expectation for software companies rather than a unique selling point For Adobe.

This means that having AI features like Firefly is not enough yet.

The challenge for Adobe is they haven't yet been able to truly monetize their AI functionality.

Which it promised to be a game changer factory Man.

Adobe's R and D expenses hit two point six billion US dollars for the nine months ending September twenty twenty three, with.

The bulk going into the AI development and right now investors are getting tired of waiting, so it's not surprising that Adobe share price has been whacked.

For our third and final story, Foxtell is looking more and more likely to be sold as execs from a British sports platform meet with the Fox Dog team to sign on the dotted line.

As your favorite pop star Jessejson as Juzzy Boy. It is all about the price tag. So what is going on here?

So man back into today. Foxtel was the go to PTV source.

Your Fox eightsy comedy channel, cartoon network, anyone, back when.

The likes of Netflix and YouTube and TikTok bare existed or didn't exist at all.

But Juzzy Boy. Since these competitors stepped in, Foxteale subscriber numbers have been rapidly declining.

Particularly over the past five years.

In fact, there are now only one point four million paying Fox Steale subscribers in Australia today.

And that's why Foxdale rolled our Ko for sport, Binge for movies, Flash for news.

But now the joint is Foxtel, News Corp and Telstra. They won out and now a British streaming platform called Dezone spelt d a z N is in the box seat to buy foxtell. Given previous acquisition talks fell over because of price, it seems like News Corp may be willing to compromise a little bit more now.

Because the window to receive a fair return is quickly closing.

Yeah, so what is the key learning here.

When evaluating whether to sell, a declining company's owners face a classic dilemma, cling to pass valuations or accept a deal that reflects today's reality.

Fox Sale's previous dominance in PATV created a high standard for its valuation.

But here's a thing. Dominance in PATV is pretty worthless today and even more so in the future.

So clinging to that previous success can lead to overestimating its worth in today's market.

And the man let's not forget back. In twenty twenty, a US cable entrepreneur offered two billion US sellers for Foxtel and it was rejected.

And now McQuary group's research team reckons Foxtel is valued at around seven hundred and thirty million dollars much so.

It looks like fox sell may need to take this deal from deown and run buck day. Just a quick reminder, we'll be wrapping up this Friday for the rest of the year, but if you want all the action, it is going all into the Flux app. There's plenty of business news, finance courses, and budgeting tools to keep you busy over the summer period. To make sure to download the Flux app and check it all

Out, Thanks for listening, and we'll see you on Wednesday.