FSLY - I Believe the Rumor

Fools,

For what it’s worth, rumors flying that Cisco is going to buy Fastly.

Here’s the two simple reasons I believe it’s true.

CEO Joshua Bixby has cashed out tons of shares and is a venture capitalist. It’s in his DNA to build - and sell.

Artur Bergman, the great brain behind the operation, fled the CEO role the second the company went public and seems like the kind of guy who would much rather build great things than deal with the endless meshugas of being a public company.

Fastly’s DNA feels completely different than Cloudflare - especially if you follow NET’s top execs on Twitter. They epitomize Jim Collin’s concept of a BHAG - Big Hairy Audacious Goal - which is to build a better, safer, faster, more innovative Internet. And strike me as limitlessly - in the best sense of the word - ambitious.

I don’t gamble but if I did I’d add some FSLY here as the buyout price will likely be over 110.

Curious if any techies believe this impacts NET?

Best,

BD

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Where do you read this rumor? There’s literally nothing when searching for “Fastly” in google news. I would recommend to add a source next time you are speculating.

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Guy has almost 500K followers…

https://twitter.com/JonahLupton/status/1334884445770436609

Apology for not sourcing it all. But stock not up 10% today for nothing.

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Cisco has stopped innovation for years, I have a feeling everything goes to Cisco will be part of Cisco’s culture , I am afraid the part of Fastly everybody loves will be eventually dying

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A Bergman has been steadily unloading huge chunks of shares as well.

If Cisco buys Fastly, there might be a few quarters bump in revenue because they can leverage Cisco’s huge customer rolodex.
But product innovation will be taken to the woodshed.

Fastly investors will see writing on the wall, exit and guess where the $s are going to - probably Cloudflare.

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It looks like Bergman and Bixby sell shares monthly. (it doesn’t look like ‘unloading’ to me?)

But beyond that, IF they were going to sell to CSCO, why would they be selling shares ahead of it (at lower prices…recent sales have been in the $70’s…)? I don’t understand why that would validate a rumor?

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Bergman has sold $185M in last 12 months.
Didn’t say Bergman selling validates Cisco acquisition rumors specifically. But it is an indicator that he may not be in it for the long term.

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(OT)

The rumor seemes to have originated at streetinsider.com:

https://www.streetinsider.com/Rumors/Fastly%2C+Inc.+%28FSLY%…

and was even picked up at Motley Fool:

https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/12/04/heres-why-fastly-s…

Although the reporter at Motley Fool was quite circumspect, and pointed out it is at best a vague rumor at this point.

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Bergman’s sales of FSLY are 12b5-1 plan sales - prearranged, regular sales at set intervals. He set in motion a diversification plan a while ago. It really means almost nothing. All his advisors would have urged him to do it. He still owns over a $.5 billion in FSLY.

Bixby is like most non-founder CEOs. FSLY shares are viewed as comp and are sold when they vest. (I’m not a CEO, and I certainly view my stock options this way.) This is also the prudent approach because if your shares vest (and are income at vesting price) and then drop you pay more tax than they are worth. Too much of a gamble. Some plans are set up to auto sell shares to pay a withholding amount.

Mike

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If it was true that Cisco was buying out Fastly this would really be terrible news for Anet and Fastly. Not only would this be out of Cisco’s wheel house it would also leave Fastly to only buy equipment from a second rate provider.

Andy

Article in TMF today quoting Street Insider regarding the rumor of FSLY being purchased by CSCO.

… Street Insider reported “vague takeover chatter” between Fastly and Cisco this morning, sparking an immediate uptick in Fastly’s share prices. It’s unclear exactly where the investing news site found this chatter and neither one of the companies has issued any official statements so far. This jump should be seen as an unsubstantiated rumor at best…

https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/12/04/heres-why-fastly-s…
sjo

1 Like