Private Software Firms Beat AI Disruption Fears With Early Earnings
Privately held software firms McAfee, Rocket Software, Perforce Software and Cloudera released their earnings to lenders ahead of schedule to reassure those lenders at a time when some are concerned that the rise of artificial intelligence could disrupt the industry, Bloomberg reported Tuesday (Feb. 17).
McAfee told debt investors that its fourth-quarter revenue was little changed year over year, Rocket Software said its 2025 revenue was up 5.2% year over year, Perforce said its 2025 revenue declined slightly, and Cloudera said it had a strong fourth quarter, according to the report.
Bloomberg said the companies disclosed this information at a time when the software industry has seen a major selloff in its debt due to “SaaSpocalypse,” a concern that the industry may see its revenue growth shrink due to disruption caused by AI.
When Cloudera announced the results of its most recent fiscal year in a Feb. 10 press release, Cloudera CEO Charles Sansbury said the company delivered record performance and continued innovation across its platform.
“As enterprises increasingly demand secure, flexible AI across all their environments, Cloudera is uniquely positioned to help them turn their data into trusted insights at scale,” Sansbury said in the release. “We’re entering FY27 with strong momentum and an even stronger roadmap.”
PYMNTS reported Feb. 4 that critics said that software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers face a core operational threat that agentic systems could bypass entire application layers, allowing firms to execute processes across finance, human resources and customer relationship management through conversational interfaces instead of traditional dashboards.
Those concerns among investors about current business models have been reflected in the stock market, as shares have been roiled.
On Monday (Feb 16), PYMNTS reported that hundreds of SaaS companies whose valuations rested on predictable per-user subscriptions could face a new model in which autonomous agents draft contracts, reconcile invoices, generate marketing copy and triage support tickets without tying those activities to a named employee.
Because the link between headcount and software revenue is weakening, vendors are increasingly experimenting with pricing tied to tokens consumed, workflows executed, transactions processed or measurable business outcomes delivered. This shift, the report said, represents a structural recalibration of SaaS economics.
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