On the morning of February 3, Jeffrey Favuzza at Jefferies' equity trading desk watched Goldman Sachs' basket of U.S. software stocks drop 6% in a single session. It was the biggest one-day decline since April's tariff selloff. Bloomberg's headline captured the mood on trading floors from Manhattan to Mumbai. "Get Me Out."
Favuzza coined a term for it. SaaSpocalypse. The word stuck because the selling didn't stop.
Summary
Anthropic's Claude Cowork launch triggered $285 billion in global software losses over 48 hours, exposing a structural flaw in per-seat SaaS pricing. AI agents now handle workflow tasks that per-seat licenses charge premium rates for, and the market responded by repricing the entire sector. This analysis traces the selloff day by day, examines which categories face replacement and which don't, documents the four pricing models already in production, and maps the collateral damage spreading from Silicon Valley to Bangalore's IT services industry and Wall Street's private credit desks.
Jump to: The Rout, Day by Day · Per-Seat Was Already Cracking · What Cowork Replaces · Four New Pricing Models · Collateral Damage · The Bull Case · The Third Act of Software · What to Watch
This article continues below.
Sign up now to read the full story and get access to all posts for paying subscribers only.
Get free access →
