Small business lending may get a boost soon if reports are correct that Goldman Sachs (GS) is looking to team up with Amazon.com (AMZN). According to a report in the Financial Times, a partnership is reported to be under discussion between the two companies under which Amazon would provide Goldman Sachs access to their online small business lending platform. This could be a win not only for Goldman Sachs, who could offer small business loans over the platform, but it would open a new and easy to access source of funds to small businesses in need of financial products.
Category Archives: investing
KKR Acquiring WebMD for $2.8bn
Private equity giant KKR announced plans this morning to buy internet health information giant WebMD Holdings for $2.8 billion, a revenue multiple turning heads in the industry and proving once again the increasing value of revenue generating websites.
The company has just announced preliminary financial results for the three months ended June 30, 2017 showing that second quarter revenue is expected to be approximately $176 million, an increase of approximately 5% from the prior year period. Prior financial guidance for the quarter was $170 million to $173 million. First quarter revenue was $154.1 million, bringing the projected total results for the first half of the year to a projected $330 million, meaning that the deal should be valued at multiple of between 4 to 5 times revenue.
We have always held WebMD as an example of a great revenue generating website. Today’s announcement is just another strong indication of the increasing value of such sites as the market begins to better understand this new asset class.
Amazon buying Whole Foods
In yet another indication of the growing power of online over bricks and mortar, it was announced today that Amazon is buying buying Whole Foods in a deal worth about $13.7 billion. Only a month ago, problems started becoming evident that resulted in a board shake-up and the implementation of cost cutting measures due to falling sales.
What to expect next? Maybe ordering your groceries through Alexa and having them delivered by drone? Only time will tell, but the move provides further evidence of the tremendous shift from traditional sales channels to online.