With any encounter with a Bully, the first tendency is to go out of your way to take the long way home for fear of having your lunch money taken. However, inevitably, the day comes when the Bully can no longer be avoided. The realization hits you that in order to solve the problem, forever, the Bully must be confronted head on.
Rather than looking for an easy landing spot or just hoping that in time the threat and urgency of the moment will just pass, confrontation and combat must become the mentality and the order of the day. For better or worse, it is time for Private Equity’s Software Segment, to platform up, and initiate its own A.I. focused M&A program.
With the diverse, organic software positions that PE firms like Robert F. Smith’s Vista Equity Partners (VEP) command, VEP, on behalf of its investors, could act as its own change agent in recovering and stabilizing both the private and public market values of its software portfolio companies simply by invading the A.I. industry through the implementation and execution of its own strategic, A.I. focused M&A program. Suddenly, the Hunter, becomes the Hunted.