Software companies finally had to care about profit in 2023

Software executives and Wall Street analysts talked about profit more than twice as often in 2023 as they did in 2019, according to an analysis of transcripts of earnings calls, corporate events and other presentations compiled by Bloomberg. — Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash

For much of the last decade, software companies just focused on growing as quickly as possible. That changed in 2023. Profit and operating margin became the industry’s watchwords.

As interest rates climbed and corporate technology budgets got cut, hawking computer applications began to look less like an endless well of expansion. Investors grew tired of the growth-at-all-costs mindset that had dominated the software industry since the great financial crisis.