People Businesses

Globant (GLOB)

Globant is a nearshore player with a unique studio model. Globant's quality of earnings keeps me on the sidelines.

Gorilla Game

29 Aug 2025 — 13 min read

Background

It is important to read my deep dive on Globant with my Primer on IT Services and my Additional Thoughts on IT Services to get some important context.

This blog is not seeking to generate "actionable" ideas. My goal is to study interesting businesses, present my findings, and suggest a buy price if it fits in my wheelhouse. I was interested in Globant because 1) boutique IT services companies are interesting from a valuation perspective 2) interviews of former employees and clients suggest they are happy with Globant and 3) Globant touts their "studio model" which has some parallels with Reply's unique organizational approach.

After doing my research, my main concern is quality of earnings. Globant has not consistently disclosed organic versus inorganic growth (to their credit, they are getting more transparent) and at the same time, Globant has significant add-backs and restructuring charges associated with M&A making it hard to parse out organic performance. For context, M&A has accounted for more than 100% of FCF over the last 10 years. As a result, Globant is a pass. If anything, studying the studio model reinforced for me the elegance and sustainability of Reply's decentralized boutique model.

Founded in 2003, Globant is an Argentina-based IT services company with a strong reputation for digital transformation, particularly for consumer facing front-end applications. Revenue breakdown is 56% North America, 22% Latam, 17% Europe and 5% ROW. Globant is a near-shore player meaning it is trying to provide comparable value-add and expertise as onshore consultancies but at cheaper prices leveraging primarily Latam-based labour. SG&A/Head at USD70 is ballpark 50% lower to an onshore US player whilst being roughly double that of an offshore Indian player.

Globant is still led by founders Martin Migoya (CEO), Guibert Englebienne (Latam President), Martin Umaran (EMEA President), and Nestor Nocetti (Corporate Affairs). Globant went public in 2014. Today, Globant has 27k employees and operations in 32 countries. Globant’s prominent clients include Disney, Google, and EA. Over the last 10 years, Globant has grown revenue 28%, EBIT by 26% and EPS by 22%. Globant typically holds net-cash.

In the section below, I will do a deep dive on: