Alphabet (GOOGL, GOOG) announced Anat Ashkenazi, the current executive vice president and CFO of Eli Lilly (LLY), will become the tech giant’s new CFO effective July 31. Mizuho senior analyst Jared Holz joins Yahoo Finance reporter Anjalee Khemlani to discuss the outlook on this decision.
Holz highlights the difficulty of simultaneously running a pharmaceutical business while delivering outstanding stock price performance, as Eli Lilly’s trajectory demonstrates. He states, “For a ‘Mag Seven’ name like Google to be interested is not all that surprising.”
As for Ashkenazi’s qualifications to transition from the healthcare sector to the tech industry, Holz says, “I think just being able to navigate what has become an enormous company in Lilly … $800 billion of market cap, trumps every other peer by a pretty wide margin.”
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This post was written by Angel Smith
Video Transcript
Big news for Eli Lilly this morning, CFO and not Ashkenazi will be leaving Eli Lilly after two decades, she’s been appointed as alphabets CFO moving forward.
Now, Ashkenazi joined Eli Lilly back in 2001.
She’s been CFO there since 2021 previously serving as CFO for several of the company’s global business areas and helping manage the revenue windfall that we’ve seen from I Lily’s weight loss and diabetes drugs.
So joining us on what this could mean for the company, we have Jared Holt analyst and our very own health care reporter on him as well.
So actually on the I am just going to start with you really quickly.
Can you give us a little bit of the background here on what exactly this move means?
How big of a deal?
This is why her, just the bit of the background.
The why is actually the question?
I think a lot of people are intrigued by this move.
It’s been a surprise for a lot of folks, you know, and has been with the company since 2001 really kind of into the CFO role as a result of her predecessor being accused of improper relationship with an employee.
So that was a move mid pandemic in the middle of the strong growth.
The company was seeing at the time with its antibody drug on the market for COVID as well as the start of that G LP one rush that the company is now in the middle of.
So really seeing that push is what you know, has really put her at the top.
And, and so why moving into a tech company?
And we know A I of course, drug companies are big there, but why this move and, and how this move really impacts, not just see like Lily, which has been on a tear up 600% or something crazy like that in the last five years.
But also then for Google, what does that mean to have someone with a strong commercial business, but specifically health care background?
And I think that’s, that’s the question that is the question.
Well, let’s ask Jared.
I mean, you’ve been listening in, what do you make of that?
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Yeah, it’s a really interesting move.
Um I think the one thing that I’ve kind of been thinking about and then talking to investors about this morning is the fact that it’s so difficult to run these pharmaceutical businesses and, and to see a stock with this sort of out performance is, is very rare.
So I think when you kind of, you know, add those two things up, you know, for a tech company, uh you know, a massive Mac Seven name like Google to be interested is really not all that surprising when you’re talking about an executive who’s done such an excellent job in a really, really difficult industry.
And Jared, I wonder about that because it is a difficult industry, but it’s been one of the better performing companies with its pipeline really in a strong place.
I know not, has been credited with uh some of the moves with the insulin pricing as well as getting manufacturing boosted, which has helped a lot in the GOP one part of it.
So this move is interesting in the sense that, you know, you’re moving from one industry to another.
What are some of the areas that could translate as a positive for her?
Well, I think just being able to navigate um what has become an enormous company in Lily, um $800 billion of market cap.
Um Trumps every other uh peer by a pretty wide margin just being able to navigate in a, in a business or in a company like this, I think translates well to large cap tech.
You’re obviously dealing with a lot of people, you’re dealing with, you know, industry um and sector dynamics that are, you know, always changing.
I think that’s one of the key considerations here as well.
Um And when you kind of think about, you know, where Google is and and where Lily is, in terms of like, you know, where they are in the chronology of the companies, they’re probably at, at similar points.
I mean, I think both are doing very well.
Lily, historically, well, obviously on the GOP front.
Um, but when you look at alphabet and, and what they’re trying to do, um in, in tech, I think there are a lot of parallels here.
