Today, House leaders passed a $2 trillion economic stimulus bill that went through the senate earlier this week. The bill provides coronavirus aid including cash and assistance for the majority of Americans, small businesses, manufacturers and airlines in the form of loans, rescue packages, and tax rebates. Additionally, $1,200 in direct payments will be sent to Americans earning adjusted gross incomes of less than $75,000. Small businesses will have access to relief with the Treasury Department introducing a $500 billion lending program, $454 billion of which will be available to businesses, states, and municipalities. Outlined in the 900-page document, Federal aid will also be offered to the millions of part-time workers and independent contractors experiencing high levels of unemployment during the ongoing crisis. The bill has been passed to President Trump for his signature.
The Coronavirus pandemic has exponentially increased the demand for products and services from major tech corporations, leading experts to believe the industry will emerge stronger than before. The three most prominent cloud-computing providers, Amazon, Google and Microsoft are all offering sizable discounts for software and corporate network infrastructure products for the influx of companies seeking a more reliable way to manage their internet infrastructure. For other noteworthy discounts, Notion, has compiled a comprehensive list of deals available to businesses looking for ways to save money and manage remote teams on products.
Microsoft has also reported use of its online collaboration tools increased 40% in just a week to over 44 million daily users. Popular video conferencing software company Zoom has also seen a huge rise in new users and it’s share price has grown more than 112% this year so far. Incidentally, a similar named company Zoom Technologies (trading under the ticket: ZOOM), has also seen its shares rocket with its stock up by nearly 900% this year, as some investors appear to have been accidentally trading in the wrong ‘Zoom’ stock! The SEC has since decided to suspend trading of Zoom Technologies.
Amazon announced it will hire 100,000 warehouse workers to meet the online shopping demand for groceries and OTC drugs. The company’s CEO, Jeff Bezos, is calling upon newly unemployed restaurant workers to join the company stating, “We hope people who’ve been laid off will come work with us until they’re able to go back to the jobs they had.” Similarly, same-day grocery delivery and pick-up service, Instacart, also released plans to hire as many as 300,000 “full-service” shoppers to deliver essential goods to households over the next three months, more than doubling the company’s current workforce of shoppers. These opportunities will hopefully offer some relief to recently displaced members of the workforce in the restaurant industry. Check out our latest post on companies that are hiring amid the crisis.
In other tech news, Google is halting its Chrome browser development, meaning the release of the next major upgrade (Chrome 82 or M82) is being abandoned. Google’s director of technical program management, Jason Kersey, spoke on the matter stating, “As we adapt our future milestone schedules to the current change in schedule, we have decided to skip the M82 release to ensure we keep users safe and focus all efforts on maintaining stability.”
M&A has certainly not slowed down over the past few weeks, with a slight increase in buyer activity seen, and new businesses still going to market. New in FE exclusive listings, we have an Affiliate/Display Advertising business in the Pet Food Resource niche listed at $444,000. Since its inception in 2016, the owner has invested in continuous content creation which has helped the site establish a dominant organic search presence. With over 345 detailed articles ranking for c.48,000 keywords, the business has attracted c.1.4M visitors in the LTM by offering detailed and highly informative articles focused on dog food selection for various breeds, ages, and dog food brands. With strong traffic, lean operations, diversified revenues, and plenty of untapped growth opportunities, a new owner will be immediately set up for success. If you are interested in this business, please follow the link above to request a prospectus.
In media news, CEO Ismael Wrixen was recently featured on the Leveling Up podcast with Eric Siu. During their conversation, Wrixen breaks down which strategies lead to success in E-commerce, SaaS, and content spaces from a growth an exit perspective, as well as views on the future of the industry as a whole. To listen to the full conversation, tune in here: LU 347: A Look Inside One of the World’s Fastest-Growing SaaS Companies.
There is still time to claim your free subscription to SaaS Mag! The quarterly magazine will be launching its fourth edition in the coming weeks, where you an access exclusive interviews with SaaS leaders such as G2, Microsoft, HotJar, FastSpring and more! Subscribe for free today!
Continue reading below for more on Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Instacart and more.
Listings
New
Affiliate/Display Advertising – Pet Food Resource – $13K Gross/Mo
- Firm foothold in the lucrative pet food niche
- Solid organic search presence with rankings for c.48,000 keywords
- Over 345 detailed articles on the niche
- Lean operating model with high net margins
Yearly net profit: $152,000
Asking price: $444,000
Affiliate – Consumer Product Reviews – $12K Gross/Mo
- Firm foothold in the lucrative consumer products niche
- Solid organic search presence with rankings for c.50,000 keywords
- Over 190 detailed articles on the niche
- Lean operating model with high net margins
Yearly net profit: $141,000
Asking price: $378,000
Shopify App – Conversion Rate Optimization App – $1.4K Gross/Mo
- Firm positioning in Conversion Rate Optimization niche, with an average ranking of 4.9 stars on Shopify
- Clear product-market fit helping drive impressive YoY growth rate of c.40%
- Highly attractive SaaS metrics with a strong MRR of c.$1,400 and LTV of c.$42
- Lean and scalable cost structure driving high net margins of c.85%
Yearly net profit: $14,000
Asking price: $65,000
Affiliate – Kitchen Appliance Resource/Blog – $1.1K Gross/Mo
- Established foothold in the kitchen appliances niche
- Steady traffic profile with c.270,000 visitors over the LTM
- Impressive SEO presence with keyword rankings for c.5,800 keywords
- Lean cost structure driving high net margins
Yearly net profit: $11,300
Asking price: $39,000
In the News…
House Passes $2 Trillion Corona Aid Bill
This Morning (3/27/2020), the House passed a $2 trillion emergency relief bill for those affected by the coronavirus pandemic. The legislation allows for more than 150 million American households to receive payments while injecting billions of dollars into unemployment insurance and hospital programs. The bill’s attempt to help address immediate economic pain is the start of a $500 billion lending program for businesses, cities, and states to include a $367 billion employee retention fund for small businesses. It is reported that the Dow Jones industrial average gained back more than 2,500 points on Tuesday and Wednesday amid optimism about the recovery package. This is the largest economic stimulus in U.S. history.
Tech Industry to Benefit from Shifts in Consumer Behavior
With the population told to work from home and isolate themselves from others, reliance on services from the technology industry has skyrocketed. When the economy does eventually improve, big tech companies like Amazon, Netflix, and Apple could emerge even stronger than before. Because of movie theater closures due to government orders, streaming services like Netflix and YouTube are gaining an even larger audience. At first, it was feared that Apple would run into difficulties from the outbreak due to their dependence on Chinese factories. However, Apple now appears to be on good footing as factories begin to return to normal, and as customers continue spending more on their digital services. By forcing the hands of consumers to explore offerings they might not have considered previously, the pandemic stands to increase people’s reliance on the services of the technology industry and accelerate trends that tech companies were already benefiting from.
Instacart and Amazon to Hire Hundreds of Thousands of Workers
Instacart has plans to hire 300,000 full-service shoppers as demand for grocery deliveries continue to grow. CEO Apoorva Mehta made a statement earlier this week saying Instacart teams are working around the clock to serve their customers during the busiest time in Instacart’s history. Instacart, which currently operates in 5,500 cities in North America, says they need more workers is in areas where they are seeing the most demand, including California, New York, Texas, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Virginia, New Jersey, Georgia, and Ohio. The surge in demand due to the coronavirus is a marked turn around for the startup which was once thought to have an uncertain future after Amazon acquired Whole Foods. After a round of financing in 2018, Instacart was valued at nearly $8 billion and CEO Mehta has confirmed that an IPO is in their future.
After being flooded with orders since coronavirus began spreading across the US, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced the company is looking to hire 100,000 new roles. Bezos urged laid off restaurant and bar workers to consider applying for the positions in a statement made on Saturday. Amazon has been flooded with orders as customers opt to stay home and order household basics to be delivered. In addition to hiring a number of full time and part-time workers, the company has raised wages for hourly employees while also implementing a number of health and safety measures.
Google Announces Upgrade Warning
Because of the impact of COVID-19, Google has chosen to cancel the next major release of Chrome. Every element of the release of Chrome 82 has been abandoned with plans to skip directly to Chrome 83 at a future date. While Chrome feature development is currently on hiatus, Google promises to continue delivering security patches for Chrome 81, the current version available. Microsoft followed Google’s lead and made a similar announcement for Edge this week. Powered by Chromium, the core for Google Chrome, Microsoft had little choice in this decision to delay updating to Edge 81.
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