Welcome to Cautious Optimism, a newsletter on tech, business, and power.
📈 Trending Up: Hurricane activity in the Atlantic … Apple Intelligence … Substack, +1M+ paid subs in the last year … EU defence capacity via American dollars … agitprop … solar power in Africa … Indian green energy production …
📉 Trending Down: Google’s search share … electric vehicle companies and service … pollution … carbon-based energy production, thanks to cool startups Fervo Energy and Exowatt
🌴 Shade: “I think a bunch of people —our competitors — kind of raced to put chatbots on top of everything and show that they were in the lead of generative AI.” — AWS CEO Matt Garman, to TechCrunch
💹 Economic Calendar: U.S. trade deficit on Tuesday, wholesale inventories Wednesday, initial jobless claims, core CPI on Thursday. Friday brings producer price index data.
On the earnings front, there’s all but nothing from tech companies this week, but Pepsi reports Tuesday, Delta and Dominos Thursday, and Blackrock Friday.
How will the public markets value Snyk?
Back in early 2024, cybersecurity startup and unicorn Snyk was reported to be preparing an IPO prospectus. Since then, what had felt like an open IPO window has become a closed portal, leaving Snyk private for the time being.
Recently, however, the company’s 2023 books were released. It tells us two things:
The cybersecurity market was abundant last year, as indicated by the company’s growth.
Cutting expenses while growing revenues really can make a dent in your company’s unprofitability.
From its 2023 Annual Report and Financial Statements: