Accenture down to buy Downdetector as part of $1.2 billion deal

Accenture is going to get a closer look into how web traffic is moving...or not moving. The company has announced plans to buy Downdetector parent company Ookla from Ziff Davis as part of a package deal with other software for $1.2 billion. The purchase will enhance the consulting megalith's intelligence and analytics tools, …

[ThatOne]

Strange world

Selling off part of your profit-creating assets raises company value. I'll definitively never understand business...

[paluster]

Re: Strange world

I think in this case it's the intention to reduce corporate debt that has raised the share price.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Strange world

A jump this big signals that shareholders weren't confident in management's ability to make best use of those assets.

[ThatOne]

Re: Strange world

> the intention to reduce corporate debt

Of course, but where is the benefit if by reducing debt you also reduce future profits?

In both cases future profits will be lower. Maybe the sold assets did earn you less than you would spend to pay off the debt over a period, but I don't see how that difference could be big enough to make the share value increase by 81 percent! Nah, definitely unable to understand the logic...

[Terry 6]

Re: Strange world shorttermism

Share value increases in the short term because flogging off the assets increases the cash in the coffers. It does fuck all for the future, but they don't give a shit about long term health.

This is just how corporate finance seems to work now. Assets are for stripping. (Or sweating to death, the other side of the coin).

[lordminty]

Re: Strange world

Its "Jam Today" or "Eating your cake" thinking.

Place I worked started to flog off loads of physical assets to pay off debt and sweeten shareholders.

I raised at the time that the balance sheet is simply "assets over liabilities" and you can only sell those assets once. Predictably, most of the liabilities remained and the balance sheet became unbalanced!

Of course the finance whizz CFO by that time was long gone, with his share options and fat pay packet!

[localzuk]

Re: Strange world

And that's the issue with stock markets. Most traders are after quick gains. Not long term stability. If they can make a profit by a company being asset stripped, they will. They don't care about next year, because they will just move on to the next company or market.

[DS999]

If you sell them for more than they are worth it will

If my company was worth $3 billion and it had a division valued at $1 billion I sold for $1.2 billion, shouldn't my company now be valued at $3.2 billion?

I don't know how much profit Downdetector and so forth make, but it is hard to imagine that stuff is really worth $1.2 billion. Maybe it worth it worth more to Accenture because it can be leveraged to help their government contracting work (which if true means it is bad for us)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Strange world

Isn't it all just a shell game with misadventure capitalists bilking everyone out of as much money as possible while they can get away with it? Southwest Airlines was the latest example.

[richardcox13]

Enshitification incoming :-(.

[Dan 55]

The Norwegian Consumer Council would like a word.

[I could be a dog really]

And that's where it's such a shame we only get one upvote.

[BartyFartsLast]

Another useful service enshittified

[YetAnotherXyzzy]

Goodbye, Ookla speedtest.net, hello librespeed.org.

[MaChatma CoatGPT 2.0]

Much obliged

Bookmarks updated.

[Anonymous Coward]

https://speed.cloudflare.com/

[Dunstan Vavasour]

Dystopian Future Movie

Another day thinking I've been warped forwards in time to a dystopian future where nothing makes any sense.

Also, "HOW MUCH???"

[xyz123]

So accenture owns Speedtest.net. which will ALWAYS show perfect speeds for anyone they run networks for.

And downdetector will show every accenture service as 100% uptime

[david 12]

Buried the lede?

I would have led with Ookla Speedtest, and mentioned Downdetector later.

I take this to mean that, in some markets, to some people, Downdetector is a more important part of the deal than speedtest?

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Buried the lede?

Question is - what's in it for them?

How much AI data can they get from people trying to work out why their ADSL is as fast as they were sold on a saturday night when everyone else is watching streaming ?

[Gene Cash]

Ziff Davis is cratering

ZD has folded a bunch of magazines, both physical and online, and shuttered a lot of YouTube channels and other things.

They're coming down faster than a Bonanza full of doctors.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Ziff Davis is cratering

Who could have predicted that launching a stable of magazines about the technology that will make magazines obsolete would go bad ?

[kmorwath]

Re: Ziff Davis is cratering

And probably their best tech journos didn't make the money some idiotic "influencer" does just opening a box on youtube... but actually you had to pay to read them.

Anyway, when I started reading PC Magazine the internet for everybody was yet to come... most PCs didn't even had a network card or a modem.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Ziff Davis is cratering

Remember at the same time O'Reilly (?) published a paper book internet index listing web sites

[LessWileyCoyote]

Re: Ziff Davis is cratering

The Internet Yellow Pages?

[Dan 55]

Re: Ziff Davis is cratering

Two years ago they were on an acquisition spree. Now it turns out they're loaded with debt. What brilliant management.