The fourth quarter of Microsoft’s 2017 financial year reported $23.3 billion in revenue. Specifically, Office 365 revenue surpassed license revenue for the first time, up 43 percent, whereas traditional Office licensing was down 17 percent. Microsoft’s transition to Office 365 has proven to be successful – changing its business, distribution and development models, as well as simultaneously migrating customers. Clearly moving towards a SaaS model has worked very well for Microsoft.
New listings this week features a software business in the computer security and encryption niche for $55K and an ad network business providing advanced ad block defeating capabilities. If you’re interested in any of these businesses you can see more details below in the Deal Highlights section. If you’re looking for something else, browse all listings here.
In event news, FE is sponsoring Midwest E-Commerce Conference in Minneapolis this weekend. Founder Thomas Smale will be speaking today at 1:50 PM CT on “How to Build an E-Commerce Business You Can Sell.” We’ll be Facebook live streaming his talk so make sure you watch and comment on our Facebook page.
Continue reading for more information on Amazon Spark, a new ChartMogul integration and a potential Facebook paywall.
Deal Highlights
Software – Computer Security – $2K gross/mo
- Strong gross and net margins of c.91%
- Wide range of tools in the product
- New software in development
- Presence in a growing niche
Yearly net profit: $22,000
Asking price: $55,000
Software – Advertising Network – $51K gross/mo
- Proprietary patent-pending software
- Strong presence in the growing ad-blocking niche
- Strong revenue figures, generating an average of c.$50,000 monthly gross revenues in the trailing 12 months
- Full-time employee willing to transition with the business post-sale
- Strong backlink profile with links from Business Insider, PubNation, and AdExchanger
Yearly net profit: $227,000
Asking price: $700,000
Sold:
Affiliate – Camping Equipment – $1.1K gross/mo
SaaS – B2B Email Marketing – $10K MRR
E-commerce – Furniture – $67K gross/mo
In the News…
Amazon Spark
This week, Amazon released a new feature, Amazon Spark, on its app to showcase users’ favorite products. In essence a combination of Instagram and Pinterest, Spark will have a feed of pictures of the products with direct links so that users can easily purchase them.
Social media was founded on facilitating connections between people, but has evolved into a channel to sell products and services as well. Amazon’s purpose is to help people sell things. Combine the two, and Amazon Spark is born.
Amazon hopes that Spark will provide users a place to find new things to buy. Instead of following people like traditional social platforms, users will be able to follow topics that allow the algorithm to show you products according to your interests.
Vindi and ChartMogul Integration
Vindi, the leading South American subscription billing business, is now integrated with ChartMogul. The integration will import Vindi data into ChartMogul and keep it synced. Rodrigo Dantas, founder of Vindi spoke about the integration on Assinaturas Day (“Subscription Day”) in a one-day event hosted by Vindi, bringing together Saas, media and e-commerce founder and executives.
Facebook Paywall
Facebook is exploring the option of a news subscription product. Similar to paywalls that exist on The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, users would be able to see 10 articles per month before being prompted to sign up for a subscription to view more. Many digital publishers have not been able to monetize through Facebook, a platform where users consume most of their news and information. According to Pew Research Center, 62% of U.S. adults use social to get news.
EMarketer analyst, Patricia Orsini states that, “Since digital advertising isn’t growing fast enough to make up losses from print revenues, this is where publishers—especially legacy publishers like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal—are looking to increase revenues.”
It is unclear who will qualify as a “publisher”, but Facebook may be adding a paid subscription feature for users to obtain content.