11 Comments
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Shane Leonard's avatar

Is deferred revenue in SaaS, the new float?

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Ben Foley's avatar

Shane I was thinking the same thing. I think deferred Revenue could be tranched based on term / industry / grr benchmarks...the first place I thought was companies at the server layer (aws, azure, and even snowflake) as this companies truly have minimal to no marginal servicing to the customer. While most SaaS businesses proclaim no / low MC relatively to net new, the reality is most of them spend enormous amounts on customer success, support, etc. to manage these client.

@marc - I hadn’t seen your piece on Pipe, can you point me in the right direction?

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Marc Rubinstein's avatar

Yes, it could be. Did you see my piece on Pipe?

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Frederik's avatar

Great piece! I remember when these were all the rage. JPM Highbridge had a private reinsurance JV vehicle that they marketed to JPM's HNW clients. Blackstone also has Fidelity National for which GSO now manages portfolios.

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QuHarrison Terry's avatar

Sorry for your loss!

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contubernium's avatar

Excellent article, with so many nuggets to consider. Thank you.

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Paul H's avatar

Isn’t there a significant regulatory burden- especially in Europe- to an insurer using “float” to invest in anything but bonds? And especially equities/whole companies?

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Sohambhatia's avatar

SQ is such a beast- relentless

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peter sherman's avatar

If the investment managers get the upside, who takes the downside? If it's Insurance Co. customers, who relied on the co. to be there, then that's Malfeasance and Fraud if the market goes into a protracted Bear Market is it not? There is supposed to be protections for consumers of Insurance and not allow "Heads I win , Tails you lose" fraudulent behavior to occur.

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Marc Rubinstein's avatar

That's why insurance regulation is so strict! (And why insurers run with lots of cash and bonds.)

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