\u201cIt is a legitimate concern [when] you look at the capabilities with coding with, say, a Claude and what Anthropic\u2019s done\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009and you really have to question if enterprise software companies can thrive,\u201d she said. Johnson added that she had spent a weekend in February \u201ctrying to figure out\u201d how to code with Anthropic\u2019s latest Opus 4.6 model of Claude.<\/p>\n
Johnson said that while these businesses still made \u201ctons of money\u201d and were likely \u201coversold in the short run\u201d, there was a \u201cthreat to their long-term business model\u201d. <\/p>\n
Johnson\u2019s comments come as a sell-off ripples through the private investment industry, with shares tumbling in the buyout shops and private credit lenders that had wagered heavily on software businesses.<\/p>\n
The slide in public markets has raised the pressure on buyout titans who had hoped to exit ageing portfolio companies this year. Some are now considering delaying asset sales that would have otherwise allowed them to earn long-awaited performance fees.<\/p>\n
It is also threatening the giant private credit lenders who have financed those acquisitions, with top executives warning that these businesses may struggle to refinance their debts in three or four years’ time when they mature.<\/p>\n
Johnson pointed to the decision by many private equity groups to turn to continuation vehicles \u2014 where an investment group sells a business it owns to a separate fund it manages \u2014 as a sign of the difficulty alternative asset managers were having returning money to their investors.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be interesting to see whether [alternative asset managers] can maintain the same growth that they\u2019ve had historically,\u201d Johnson said. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou are not hearing the institutional clients, the sovereign wealth funds and the pension funds, saying: \u2018Oh, I\u2019m going to dramatically increase my allocation of private markets.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n
Franklin<\/a>, like its rivals BlackRock and T Rowe Price, has charged into private markets as investors have shifted out of legacy mutual funds and into low-fee passive funds. Over the past seven years, the company has bought the credit investment shops Benefit Street Partners, Alcentra and Apera, the secondary private equity stakes investor Lexington Partners and real estate group Clarion.<\/p>\n Johnson last year hired Daniel Gamba<\/a> as a co-president to lead the firm\u2019s marketing and sales efforts as Franklin\u2019s first chief commercial officer. Gamba has been given the task of accelerating sales of Franklin\u2019s private funds and helping turn the tide on investor redemptions from the company\u2019s traditional funds business, which was hard hit by a scandal at its Western Asset Management fixed-income division. <\/p>\n The unit has suffered nearly $150bn of outflows since the US Securities and Exchange Commission in 2024 charged Western\u2019s former co-chief investment officer<\/a> with criminal fraud for allegedly cherry-picking which clients received more favourable trades.<\/p>\n Gamba, who had spent more than two decades at BlackRock, said one of his priorities was to improve how Franklin covered its large institutional clients to better pitch products from the company\u2019s individual investment divisions.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are accelerating our public and private markets conversations with clients,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd you can see that in the last quarter, the great results that we had in terms of fundraising on privates.\u201d<\/p>\n Recommended<\/p>\n![\"Line](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/https:\/\/d6c748xw2pzm8.cloudfront.net\/prod\/402640c0-0e74-11f1-a726-0faa460a57d0-standard.png\")
<\/p>\n
![\"Smartphone](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/https:\/\/images.ft.com\/v3\/image\/raw\/https%3A%2F%2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net%2Fproduction%2F2f3f18.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n