Progress sells business software that customers keep renewing, and it turns that into far more cash than reported profit. Now it must repay about $400 million it borrowed to buy Domo, which management calls its largest acquisition.
When an office network slows down, someone has to find the faulty server or router. Progress makes software for jobs like that. Its WhatsUp Gold product watches every device on a network so problems can be found and fixed. Software vendors also build Progress technology into their own business programs. Progress earns when those customers keep paying, year after year.
Customers pay in three ways. Some buy a licence for software installed on their own machines, and can then choose to pay for maintenance, which brings updates and technical help. Others rent software online as SaaS (software delivered over the internet as a subscription). Once a product is wired into a customer's systems or built into a vendor's application, maintenance and subscriptions tend to renew. Those renewals are the main engine; licence sales add a less predictable layer. An extra copy of software costs little to deliver, so what remains depends mostly on spending on engineers and sales staff. Progress also buys established software companies with borrowed money and repays the debt from their cash. Those deals add accounting charges that shrink reported profit without using cash today.
Create a free account to unlock the rest of this report and access all published research.
This report is general, non-personalized research provided solely for informational and educational purposes. It is not financial or investment advice, a personalized recommendation, an offer to the public, a solicitation, an instruction to buy, sell or hold a financial instrument, or an invitation to engage in an investment activity. ReasyPort is not an authorised or regulated investment firm and does not provide a MiFID II investment service.
This report is based on primary and public sources identified in the report, including issuer filings, annual and interim reports, regulated announcements, investor-relations materials, market data and, where relevant, institutional macroeconomic publications. Facts should be read separately from interpretations, estimates and opinions.
Text, analyses, summaries, translations and charts may be produced with the support of Artificial Intelligence and are subjected to deterministic data and consistency checks before publication. These controls reduce, but cannot eliminate, errors, omissions or incorrect interpretations. Editorial responsibility for publication remains with the producer identified above.
ReasyPort View labels, fair values, forecasts, scenarios, price references and other forward-looking statements are editorial estimates or opinions, not facts or trading instructions. They depend on the assumptions, methodology, market price and information available on the stated reference date and may change without notice. The report is not monitored or updated in real time.
Any relationship, compensation, material holding or other circumstance known to ReasyPort that could reasonably impair the objectivity of a report must be disclosed with that report. Questions, corrections and potential conflicts may be reported through the legal contact shown above.
Public and primary sources, automated extraction and data providers may contain material errors, omissions, inaccuracies, restatements or delays. Accuracy, completeness and timeliness are therefore not guaranteed, and important information should be checked against the original source before it is used.
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, ReasyPort, the author, the publisher and the persons involved in producing the report are not liable for losses arising from decisions made solely in reliance on this report. Nothing in this notice excludes or limits any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.
Any investment decision should be made independently, if appropriate with the support of a licensed financial adviser. Investments in financial instruments involve risks, including the possible partial or total loss of invested capital.
Research methodology, assumptions and disclosuresMeaning of ReasyPort View