Reboot: Big tech didn’t have the best time at Davos, but it emerged unscathed…for now

Here it is – your fortnightly tech stocks wrap

Industry focus

It has not been an easy run for big tech as of late. Despite 2019 being no exception to the decade of share price growth FAANG (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) stocks have witnessed, companies are now facing trade hostilities and the constant threat of regulation.

The tech industry and politicians both put on straight faces when they went to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week.

With Apple CEO @tim_cook in Davos we spoke about regulating tech giants, copyright, and taxes to be paid where profits are made. #WEF20 pic.twitter.com/7sYOnQ30lm

— Roberta Metsola (@EP_President) January 21, 2020

Behind the scenes things were less rosy.

The most contentious points of disagreement were trade disputes and a proposed tax on tech firms that Britain proposes introducing this year. France proposed a similar measure but backed down (for now) when the US threatened retaliation.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella warned the current US-China trade deal was not sufficient on broader issues that caused the fight to break out, like intellectual property.

Meanwhile, away from Davos, people are concerned about privacy and big tech is realising it. Google CEO Sundar Pichai said at Davos that “privacy is at the heart of what we do”.

“Users come to Google at very important moments, ask us questions, we deal with people’s sensitive information in Gmail, Google Photos and so on, and so we have to earn their trust,” he said.

“Today we do it by giving them control and transparency and choice around it.”

Small cap spotlight

ASX tech stocks have gained 5 per cent in the last fortnight and 24 per cent in the last 12 months.

Here are all the ASX small cap technology stocks and their performance in the past fortnight:

Swipe or scroll to reveal the full table. Click headings to sort

The biggest winner with news is cybersecurity stock Tesserent (ASX:TNT). Shareholders have been excited with well known Melbourne business identity Geoff Lord becoming chairman and recent acquisitions.

Another company undergoing change on the shareholder registry is the ASX’s only restaurant tech stock Dragontail Systems (ASX:DTS).

On Wednesday it announced new US investors Eldridge Industries, Goudy Park Capital and Alceon Liquid Strategies would join the company. Between them, Dragontail raised $20m.

Despite raising over $30m at a discount to its share price, fintech Wisr (ASX:WZR) has gained 51 per cent in two weeks.

Wisr has gained 522 per cent in the last year, making it the second greatest gainer after accounts receivable software IODM (ASX:IOD). The latter is up 650 per cent.

Quarterly season will be in full swing next week but a handful of small caps released theirs early and impressed investors. Gainers included Bigtincan Holdings (ASX:BTH) and Whispir (ASX:WSP).

Finally, music tech stock Jaxsta (ASX:JXT) signed its debut commercial deal with APRA AMCOS – Australia’s oldest copyright collection agency.

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