Students work on computers on the campus of 42 schools in Paris.
Martin Bureau | AFP | fake pictures
JAMF’s IPO prospectus names Apple 533 times. The company says its mission is “to help organizations succeed with Apple.” One of its key risk factors is that customers are not satisfied with Apple products.
Founded 18 years ago, JAMF is finally targeting the public market. In its prospectus released Tuesday, the company has no qualms about tying its fortunes to a tech giant that investors now value more than $ 1.5 trillion.
“Apple is ubiquitous,” says JAMF in the industry background section of its presentation. “It has transformed the technology landscape by putting the user first and designing everything to maximize the Apple user experience.”
JAMF helps companies securely deploy all of those Apple products by connecting them and giving IT teams the tools to manage them. In the first quarter, revenue increased 37% from a year ago, to $ 60.4 million, and the company’s gross margin increased to 75% from 70%, as more customers turned to its subscription offering. You are still losing money, although your net loss decreased slightly from $ 9 million to $ 8.3 million.
JAMF has been around for a long time, but its business has taken off in recent years as Apple devices became more popular in business settings. Before the rise of the iPhone in the past decade, companies used to rely on PCs with software from Microsoft and other vendors, and on a myriad of phones from different vendors. The popularity of the iPhone convinced some companies to take a closer look at other Apple products, including iPads and Macs.
Apple became a customer in 2010 and a channel partner in retail and education a year later. In its customer case study section of the brochure, JAMF highlights IBM, which decided in 2015 to deploy more than 30,000 Mac computers in a six-month period for employees, and SAP, which in 2018 switched to more than 80,000 iPhones and iPads in seven months.
JAMF says competitors include VMware, Microsoft and IBM, though none of them is focused on products in the Apple ecosystem.
Apple itself represents a different type of risk. Last week, the iPhone maker announced the acquisition of Fleetsmith, a four-year-old company, whose software makes it easy to configure, erase, and remotely deploy devices.
Competing with Apple?
JAMF said it currently sees Fleetsmith focused on small and medium-sized businesses and not in direct competition for the same customers.
“However, Apple could take advantage of this platform, either through additional investment or the consolidation of other competitors of ours, to compete more directly with the scale and breadth of the product offerings we offer,” the presentation warns.
Another topic highlighted in the JAMF leaflet is the coronavirus pandemic. The words Covid and coronavirus appear 60 times combined in the presentation.
The coronavirus, which sent office workers and students across the country to their homes in February and March, has underscored the need for companies to adopt remote management technologies, according to the document. Healthcare providers and schools, in particular, have become more dependent on iPads and have had to transition to them quickly.
JAMF tells investors that many of these trends are probably here to stay.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for solutions to enhance remote work, distance learning and telehealth,” says the prospect. “While these trends were gaining mental involvement before the pandemic, recent challenges have added momentum to these digital transformation changes that will last long after the COVID-19 related struggles have passed.”
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