The latest Market Talks covering Technology, Media and Telecom. Published exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires at 4:20 ET, 12:20 ET and 16:50 ET.
1909 GMT - Two days after Blackline reported a cooperation agreement with Engaged Capital, another activist investor emerges. FiveSpan Partners reported a 5.1% stake in the financial software company Thursday in a 13D filing. FiveSpan said it expects from time to time to talk to Blackline about topics such as management, board composition and capital allocation. In January, Engaged called for board changes, claiming the board failed in its fiduciary duty and complaining of "prolonged underperformance." This week, Blackline said it named Storm Duncan and Megan Prichard to the board in connection with the cooperation agreement. In March 2025, BlackLine named Scott Davidson a director as part of an agreement with Scalar Gauge Fund. (josh.beckerman@wsj.com)
1714 GMT - Uber's platform and fleet management capabilities position it as "the best and most critical platform in the AV value chain," according to BMO in a note, as the company strikes partnerships with a handful of autonomous vehicle providers. The analysts favor Uber's "asset-light approach as a demand aggregator" and says the company's model of third-party AV partnerships reduces the risk of over-reliance and disintermediation posed by Waymo, at once Uber's partner in some markets and a vertically-integrated competitor in others. "We are incrementally positive on Uber's AV partnership strategy and believe the company is well-positioned to win in a rapidly growing multi-trillion-dollar opportunity," the analysts say. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)
1703 GMT - Wedbush remains bearish on Uber's ability to compete in robotaxis with Tesla and Waymo despite the company continuing to strike deals with smaller autonomous vehicle providers. Uber's deals will take some time to scale and carry significant execution risks, while Waymo, owned by Google parent Alphabet, and Tesla continue to build out artificial-intelligence infrastructure, data collection, and their own fleets. "While we acknowledge that Uber is managing the business favorably against the current backdrop, we continue to believe that share will ultimately accrue to leading scaled AV operators," the analysts write. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)
1658 GMT - ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott says the rise of AI agents could upend the job market, forecasting unemployment could reach a mid-30% rate for young college graduates in the next couple of years. "I think it's very natural to be concerned about jobs," he says during an appearance on CNBC. "So much of the work is going to be done by agents, so it's going to be challenging for young people to differentiate themselves in a corporate environment." Between now and 2030, companies will take on about three billion agents, he says. (kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)
1655 GMT - Uber's partnership with Amazon-owned robotaxi company Zoox in Las Vegas and Los Angeles is a positive signal for the company's ability to generate demand for autonomous vehicle services, Truist analysts write in a note. "We continue to see robotaxis as Uber's greatest threat but also its greatest opportunity, and Zoox adds another important AV player to its portfolio of partnerships, which we see as a reflection of the attractiveness of Uber's robust demand-gen network for AV companies looking to drive utilization across their fleets," the analysts write. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)
1616 GMT - The retirement of Adobe's chief executive may be a sign that AI is creating a bigger change in the business, UBS analysts say. The analysts were surprised that creative head David Wadhwani wasn't immediately named the successor to Shantanu Narayen. They think this introduces some departure risk. The analysts mention the departure of Workday CEO Carl Eschenbach as a potential parallel. In that case, Eschenbach's exit ushered in a pivot in Workday's strategy from a sales-driven to an AI-first product approach. "The departure of the CEO might reflect (as did the Workday CEO departure) that AI is shifting the business," the analysts say. Shares down 6.7% to $251.69 in midday trading. (katherine.hamilton@wsj.com)
1556 GMT - Adobe's first-quarter financial results did little to dispel negative sentiment that is weighing on the stock, and the announcement that its long-time chief executive will retire didn't help, William Blair analysts say. Questions remain about how the highly competitive creative software industry sector will fare in the new era of AI, the analysts say. If Adobe showed strong growth acceleration or market share gains from AI, that might help resolve some of investors' concerns, the analysts say. However, they think it's unlikely Adobe will do that in the near future, "which suggests the sentiment overhang is likely to linger," the analysts say. Shares fall 5%. (katherine.hamilton@wsj.com)
1545 GMT -- Adobe's annual recurring revenue growth is being weighed down by new AI-related trends, Deutsche Bank analysts say. Customers are increasingly using generative AI instead of Adobe Stock, its library of images and other visuals. That trend shaved off about 30 basis points from ARR growth, the analysts estimate. Secondly, customers are using more free products as Adobe aims to attract engagement with new AI tools. Creative "freemium" monthly active users increased 50% year over year, the analysts say. The analysts expect ARR growth will increase in the second half of the year, which could limit Adobe's ability to beat its own guidance. Shares are down about 7%. (katherine.hamilton@wsj.com)
1538 GMT -- Amazon's plan to deploy Cerebras chips shows the shift in AI computing toward inference functions, which allow AI models to respond to user queries, instead of model training. The GPU chips used widely for AI model training aren't as good for inference workloads that require more speed. Cerebras says its chips can process the phase of inference computing in which an AI model spits out a response to a user query up to 25 times faster than Nvidia's GPUs. Next week, Nvidia plans to unveil a new processing system tailored for inference using the technology of chip startup Groq, with which it signed a licensing deal in December. (nicholas.miller@wsj.com)
1538 GMT - Uber Technologies is speeding up its rollout of robotaxi services. The company, which some analysts say is under pressure to compete with Waymo and Tesla for autonomous driving services, unveiled a string of robotaxi partnerships with Hyundai Motor-owned Motional in Las Vegas, Amazon-owned Zoox in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, and with Wayve and Nissan Motor in Tokyo. Uber users in Las Vegas can now hail autonomous Motional vehicles monitored by a vehicle operator, with full self-driving expected by the end of the year. Zoox robotaxis will be available in Las Vegas this summer and Los Angeles in 2027. Monitored Wayve robotaxis will hit Tokyo roads later this year. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)
1534 GMT -- Amazon Web Services' plan to deploy Cerebras chips is just the latest high-profile vote of confidence in the chipmaking startup. AWS will use Cerebras' chip, called the Wafer-Scale Engine, to help power inference functions, the companies say, but that's not Cerebras' only collaboration with a tech giant. This week, one of Oracle's chief executives publicly identified Cerebras this week as one of its chip providers, alongside Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices. And earlier this year, the company agreed to a $10 billion deal with OpenAI to supply chips to power its chatbot. OpenAI is seeking to deploy up to 750 megawatts of computing power using Cerebras' chips. (nicholas.miller@wsj.com)
1507 GMT - Enghouse Systems' recurring revenue fell, and part of it is because customers are rethinking the role artificial intelligence. The software company's recurring revenue, which includes software-as-a-service and maintenance services, fell 3.8%. Recurring revenue is typically considered predictable and stable and it is the cornerstone of broader performance, especially for software companies where it signals durable customer relationships. In this case, software licensing and maintenance fees declined. The company says it is contending with "ongoing macroeconomic shifts, everchanging AI impact predictions and an increasingly unpredictable global environment." The drop comes as investors have been pulling out of software names, reflecting broader caution around enterprise spending and uncertainty over how AI will reshape product demand. Enghouse Systems slides 12% to C$15.62. (adriano.marchese@wsj.com)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 14, 2026 04:20 ET (08:20 GMT)
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