Speaker 1: This is what the flux.
Speaker 2: I'm Brett now justin and its Monday, the sixteenth of December.
Speaker 1: Jesse Wait Westpac reckons that cost of living challenges may
Speaker 1: have hit their peak and now things are getting easier
Speaker 1: at all. That's because the number of mortgage customers experiencing
Speaker 1: hardship hit a high of nearly twenty thousand customers in
Speaker 1: June and it reduced to seventeen and a half thousand
Speaker 1: in November. Whack. On top of that, consumer sentiment at
Speaker 1: its highest level in two and a half years, and
Speaker 1: everything is coming up or Westpac.
Speaker 2: Except for their financial results. We've absolutely loved being in
Speaker 2: your ears while you make coffee, jump on the train,
Speaker 2: or even pump some iron this year. But this will
Speaker 2: be our last week of the pod for twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: Don't worry. We'll be back fit and firing on January twentieth,
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five. But if you're craving a little bit
Speaker 2: of flux in your life over that period, don't worry,
Speaker 2: because the flux app ain't going nowhere. There's plenty of
Speaker 2: business use finance courses and budgeting tools to keep you
Speaker 2: occupied over the lonely summer months.
Speaker 1: Three refreshing stories TODAYI boy, let's do it for our first.
Speaker 1: AMP has become the first major super fund to invest
Speaker 1: in crypto after investing twenty seven million dollars into bitcoin.
Speaker 2: I want to be the fly on the wall for
Speaker 2: that investment, manager's pitched to the investment committee. Be man,
Speaker 2: so tell me more, all right.
Speaker 1: Jazi boy. AMP is one of Australia's oldest financial services companies.
Speaker 2: It was founded in eighteen forty nine and actually stands
Speaker 2: for Australian Mutual Provident Society. Very sexy night.
Speaker 1: And right now. AMPS around fifty seven billion dollars worth
Speaker 1: of super assets under management.
Speaker 2: So now they thought, why not give bitcoin a bit
Speaker 2: of a whirl?
Speaker 1: Yeah, well they just announced the investment.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: They had invested twenty seven million into bitcoin back in
Speaker 1: May when.
Speaker 2: The price was sixty to seventy thousand US dollars.
Speaker 1: This is interesting because other super funds like Australian Super
Speaker 1: and Australian Retirement Trust have specifically dismissed crypto investments.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they reckon crypto is just too volatile for.
Speaker 1: Super funds and doesn't offer a yield.
Speaker 2: And they man this step by AMP and the thirty
Speaker 2: percent uplift in bitcoin so far might just drive other
Speaker 2: super funds to dip their toes in the crypto waters too.
Speaker 1: Mm so what is the key learning here?
Speaker 2: Crypto can't be called a fringe asset class anymore, especially
Speaker 2: when traditionally cautious industries like super funds are getting in
Speaker 2: on the autiboy.
Speaker 1: Let's be real here. AMP only allocated a tiny portion
Speaker 1: of its investment portfolio into bitcoin.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're talking just point zero five percent, so it's
Speaker 2: not meaningful from a risk perspective. And then, man, might
Speaker 2: I remind you that historically Australian super funds were hesitant
Speaker 2: to invest in venture capital two.
Speaker 1: Yep, they thought the risk were too high and the
Speaker 1: funds were illiquid.
Speaker 2: But in twenty fourteen, host Plass made its first investment
Speaker 2: in the VC space, where they happened to invest in
Speaker 2: a range of funds and a small little startup called Canvas.
Speaker 1: This grew from a ninety four million dollar investment to
Speaker 1: over one point nine billion dollars in value.
Speaker 2: And since then other super funds like Australian Super and
Speaker 2: HESTER have also invested in vcs and directly into startups. Two.
Speaker 1: So Jazi boy, While AMP is the first major super
Speaker 1: fund to invest in crypto. The changing landscape makes me
Speaker 1: think it may not be the last for our set.
Speaker 1: Second story, Adobe has seen at share price plummet after
Speaker 1: concerns its AI tools aren't being monetized as fast as expected.
Speaker 2: Now you can just hear the dramatic music in the
Speaker 2: bodroom as the competitors creep up um tell me.
Speaker 1: Well, well, josy boy, Adobe is the design software powerhouse
Speaker 1: behind Photoshop, Illustrator and Premiere pro Man.
Speaker 2: Don't forget Adobe actually created the PDF format back in
Speaker 2: the nineties, Is.
Speaker 1: That correct, josy boy, little expert.
Speaker 2: But you didn't know you'd be thanking Adobe every single
Speaker 2: time you open a file.
Speaker 1: But gone of the days when designers couldn't live without Adobe,
Speaker 1: because hello Canva, and hello Figma, and a whole lot
Speaker 1: of other competitors too.
Speaker 2: And now, b man, Adobe stock has dropped by more
Speaker 2: than thirteen percent because it released weaker than expected revenue projection.
Speaker 1: You see, Adobe released a new AI tool called Firefly
Speaker 1: in March of twenty twenty three, and.
Speaker 2: Well, Camva's been catching up to Adobe's traditional design suite.
Speaker 2: Adobe was saying we're way ahead because check out our
Speaker 2: fancy AI, but b Man Not only have Adobe struggled
Speaker 2: to grow the AI product, and even Google have released
Speaker 2: their own AI design offering too check. On top of that,
Speaker 2: new players like Stability, AI, mid Journey and Runway, and
Speaker 2: investors are kind of concerned that Adobe might not find
Speaker 2: a way to actually monetize this product.
Speaker 1: So what is the key learning here?
Speaker 2: After more than two years in the market, AI is
Speaker 2: now seen as a baseline expectation for software companies rather
Speaker 2: than a unique selling point For Adobe.
Speaker 1: This means that having AI features like Firefly is not
Speaker 1: enough yet.
Speaker 2: The challenge for Adobe is they haven't yet been able
Speaker 2: to truly monetize their AI functionality.
Speaker 1: Which it promised to be a game changer factory Man.
Speaker 2: Adobe's R and D expenses hit two point six billion
Speaker 2: US dollars for the nine months ending September twenty twenty three, with.
Speaker 1: The bulk going into the AI development and right now
Speaker 1: investors are getting tired of waiting, so it's not surprising
Speaker 1: that Adobe share price has been whacked.
Speaker 2: For our third and final story, Foxtell is looking more
Speaker 2: and more likely to be sold as execs from a
Speaker 2: British sports platform meet with the Fox Dog team to
Speaker 2: sign on the dotted line.
Speaker 1: As your favorite pop star Jessejson as Juzzy Boy. It
Speaker 1: is all about the price tag. So what is going
Speaker 1: on here?
Speaker 2: So man back into today. Foxtel was the go to
Speaker 2: PTV source.
Speaker 1: Your Fox eightsy comedy channel, cartoon network, anyone, back when.
Speaker 2: The likes of Netflix and YouTube and TikTok bare existed
Speaker 2: or didn't exist at all.
Speaker 1: But Juzzy Boy. Since these competitors stepped in, Foxteale subscriber
Speaker 1: numbers have been rapidly declining.
Speaker 2: Particularly over the past five years.
Speaker 1: In fact, there are now only one point four million
Speaker 1: paying Fox Steale subscribers in Australia today.
Speaker 2: And that's why Foxdale rolled our Ko for sport, Binge
Speaker 2: for movies, Flash for news.
Speaker 1: But now the joint is Foxtel, News Corp and Telstra.
Speaker 1: They won out and now a British streaming platform called
Speaker 1: Dezone spelt d a z N is in the box
Speaker 1: seat to buy foxtell. Given previous acquisition talks fell over
Speaker 1: because of price, it seems like News Corp may be
Speaker 1: willing to compromise a little bit more now.
Speaker 2: Because the window to receive a fair return is quickly closing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so what is the key learning here.
Speaker 2: When evaluating whether to sell, a declining company's owners face
Speaker 2: a classic dilemma, cling to pass valuations or accept a
Speaker 2: deal that reflects today's reality.
Speaker 1: Fox Sale's previous dominance in PATV created a high standard
Speaker 1: for its valuation.
Speaker 2: But here's a thing. Dominance in PATV is pretty worthless
Speaker 2: today and even more so in the future.
Speaker 1: So clinging to that previous success can lead to overestimating
Speaker 1: its worth in today's market.
Speaker 2: And the man let's not forget back. In twenty twenty,
Speaker 2: a US cable entrepreneur offered two billion US sellers for
Speaker 2: Foxtel and it was rejected.
Speaker 1: And now McQuary group's research team reckons Foxtel is valued
Speaker 1: at around seven hundred and thirty million dollars much so.
Speaker 2: It looks like fox sell may need to take this
Speaker 2: deal from deown and run buck day. Just a quick reminder,
Speaker 2: we'll be wrapping up this Friday for the rest of
Speaker 2: the year, but if you want all the action, it
Speaker 2: is going all into the Flux app. There's plenty of
Speaker 2: business news, finance courses, and budgeting tools to keep you
Speaker 2: busy over the summer period. To make sure to download
Speaker 2: the Flux app and check it all
Speaker 1: Out, Thanks for listening, and we'll see you on Wednesday.