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Birmingham, England, moved its finance and HR systems onto Oracle Corp. (ORCL) software in 2022. The first rollout left Europe’s largest local council unable to reconcile its own bank accounts, The Register reported.

The project is now set to cost about £144.4 million ($193 million), against a first estimate of £20 million ($27 million).

The council’s own custom changes played a part. Still, the case captures a fear every business software buyer knows: Getting the system to work is where budgets break.

On Monday, Oct. 26, Oracle tackled that fear at its AI World conference in Las Vegas. It launched a public library of setup instructions that AI agents can follow to configure its Fusion business software, the company announced.

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The launch follows a rare admission on Oracle’s Sept. 10 earnings call. CEO Mike Sicilia spoke of “compressing SaaS deployments from years to months and months to weeks.”

SaaS means software rented online, so Oracle’s own boss conceded that its products can take years to go live.

Oracle is giving its slowest setup work to agents

Setting up business software means deciding how every approval, payment rule, and report should work, then testing each choice.

Oracle’s registry turns that knowledge into skills that agents from OpenAI and others can run and test, the company said. Human experts can then review the finished setup and approve it before it goes live.

What stands out to me is who applauded. Accenture Edge, Deloitte, PwC, and Grant Thornton all praised a tool that automates setup work their teams traditionally did by hand, Oracle’s announcement shows. Oracle said the registry frees them to focus on redesigning how clients operate.

That support is smart business, since freed consultants can sell more valuable advice. However, the bigger winner may be Oracle itself.

Oracle CEO Mike Sicilia said agents can shrink software rollouts that once took years, and faster launches let Oracle recognize revenue sooner.Mesut Dogan / Getty Images

Faster rollouts help Oracle’s books as much as customers

Sicilia spelled out that payoff while answering Jefferies analyst Brent Thill. He said some deals in complex industries ramp up as customers go live, so faster launches let Oracle recognize revenue sooner.

Some complex health care rollouts once ran into high-double-digit total months, he added.

That matters because Oracle’s software business is growing far more slowly. Cloud applications revenue rose 10% in the quarter, Oracle told investors on the same call. Cloud infrastructure revenue, which includes renting out AI computing power, jumped 121%, Oracle said.

The data center growth comes at a steep price. Oracle’s debt climbed to about $125 billion as it built out AI capacity, CNBC reported. Each month cut from a rollout pulls steadier software revenue forward, and a company carrying that much debt needs it.

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Wall Street still likes Oracle but keeps trimming targets

Investors have mostly focused on that debt. Oracle shares rose about 1% on the morning of Oct. 26. Even so, the stock is down about 54% over the past year after its worst weekly slump since 2001 in June.

That slide has made the stock cheap on paper. Oracle trades at about 15 times expected earnings, meaning investors pay about $15 for each $1 of expected profit. The discount reflects negative free cash flow of $28.7 billion over the past year, as the same data shows.

Analysts remain upbeat. The 43 analysts tracked by StockAnalysis rate Oracle a Buy, with an average price target of $236.54. The latest calls, using each firm’s own rating, show lower targets:

Overweight, $250 target, cut from $280: Wells Fargo’s Michael Turrin, Oct. 26

Buy, $206 target, cut from $240: Goldman Sachs’ Gabriela Borges, Oct. 23

Overweight, $284 target: Cantor Fitzgerald’s Thomas Blakey, Oct. 22

Sector Perform, neutral rating, $165 target: RBC Capital’s Rishi Jaluria, Oct. 22

I rate Oracle a hold for now. Faster rollouts can lift the software business, but they won’t fix the cash drain. Chief Financial Officer Hilary Maxson declined on the Sept. 10 call to give a date for positive free cash flow.

If management offers that timeline at its investor day on Oct. 28, I’d be a buyer at today’s price. Until then, the low multiple looks like a fair price for real uncertainty.

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The next software fight is over how fast it goes live

The registry also cuts both ways for Oracle. The pain of switching business software has long kept customers loyal, because few companies want to risk another Birmingham. If agents make rollouts quick and cheap, that pain shrinks for every vendor.

As a result, Oracle could win customers who once feared a long project. It could also lose customers more easily if rivals build similar tools.

The number worth watching may not involve data centers. It may be how many weeks a new customer now waits to go live.

Across business software, that wait is quietly becoming the price that decides who wins.

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A couple of years ago, the LA Fitness less than a mile from my house shut down.

At the time, I had an annual contract with the chain, so because there was another location about four miles away, I was not allowed to cancel my membership. That distance, however, was deceptive. During rush hour — the time period I was most often free to work out — it took more than 30 minutes to drive that four miles.

Now, tens of thousands of LA Fitness members will find themselves in the same boat, as the chain has been closing locations nationwide. In some cases, those shuttered gyms are being reopened under the higher-end Club Studio’s name, another brand owned by LA Fitness’ parent company Fitness International.

Once my contract expired, I never actually got around to canceling my membership because the company does not make that process easy. That’s actually the subject of a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigation that has been ongoing since August 2025.

It’s also a situation that’s repeating itself for me because the LA Fitness about three miles from our new home closed and will be replaced by a Club Studios.

LA Fitness closes one chain to sometimes open another

LA Fitness has quietly been closing gyms across multiple markets.

“As of October 24, 2026, Store Closure Watch has tracked 19 LA Fitness closure-related events across the U.S., including 16 recorded store closures. Another 3 are conversions: the store changes to another brand at the same site. Where the source names the new brand, 3 are recorded as converting to Club Studio, according to Four Lights Analytics Store Closure Watch.

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Florida was hardest hit with 11 closures, while Connecticut and Illinois both will lose three LA Fitness locations, and New York and Rhode Island will each lose one.

Fitness International has publicly stated that it plans to grow the Club Studios brand from 15 to 50 locations nationwide within the next year.

LA Fitness has been closing some locations.Shutterstock

Club Studios costs a lot more

The LA Fitness closing near me serves a wealthy community adjacent to the town I live in. It’s a city known for hosting polo matches and other equestrian events, and Fitness International likely sees its higher-end brand as a better fit for that market.

Club Studios, which was created in 2023, offers boutique fitness classes and additional wellness amenities.

Both chains come with very different price tags.

LA Fitness and Club Studios membership cost comparison

Club Studio can cost nearly four times as much. At the example prices above, annual membership costs $1,908 versus $488.88 at LA Fitness.

Club Studio combines a conventional gym with boutique classes. Its offerings include reformer Pilates, cycling, and other instructor-led workouts, as well as strength and cardio equipment.

The premium isn’t just about classes. Club Studio locations can also offer amenities such as pools, saunas, steam rooms, and towel service.

The price gap varies by market. The company’s official enrollment pages show location-specific pricing, so compare the same local market before presenting the difference as a general rule.Sources: LA Fitness official membership pricing and Club Studio official pricing

CostLA FitnessClub StudioMonthly membership$34.99 at one listed location$159 at one listed locationAnnual fee$69$0 advertisedInitiation fee$0 advertised$0 advertisedAnnual dues + annual fee$488.88$1,908First-year cost including fees$488.88$1,908Boutique fitness classesSpecialty access depends on membershipUnlimited includedEquipment and traditional gym amenitiesYesYes, including select luxury amenities

Prices vary by location.

LA Fitness makes it hard to quit

LA Fitness does not allow contracted members to quit simply because their local gym has closed. Technically, if there’s another gym within 25 miles, you cannot cancel your contract, according to its membership agreement.

Even when your contract expires, the company makes quitting a challenge, which is the subject of the FTC lawsuit.

“The Federal Trade Commission today sued the operators of LA Fitness and other gyms over allegations they make it exceedingly difficult for consumers to cancel their gym memberships and related services that continued indefinitely unless canceled. The agency is seeking a court order prohibiting the allegedly unfair conduct and money back for consumers harmed by the difficulty in canceling memberships,” the federal agency shared in an August 2025 press release.

Traditionally, LA Fitness has required consumers who want to cancel their membership to either go to the gym itself or send a cancellation notice by mail.

“To start the process, LA Fitness has instructed consumers to log into its website and print a cancellation form. But even logging in can be cumbersome because consumers often do not recall their login credentials, and LA Fitness requires consumers to use the email address used to establish membership, the ‘key tag’ number assigned at start up, and the first five digits of their credit card or bank account number to reset their login credentials,” the FTC shared.

In my case, I don’t have my key tag anymore, nor do I remember which credit card I used to start the account.

“At the hearing, LA Fitness’s counsel made several arguments in response. She contended that the gym does offer a simple online cancellation mechanism on its website and that the online cancellation flow requires fewer clicks than enrollment,” law firm Frankfurt, Kurnit, Klein, and Selz shared on its Advertising Law updates page.

She also argued that members knew what they were getting into.

“Consumers, she added, received disclosures about cancellation procedures in their membership agreements and enrollment flows, and none of that information was in fine print. Given what she characterized as the ‘absolute absence of any real allegations’ of harm in the FTC’s complaint, she argued it ‘really boggles the mind’ how the cancellation process could be deemed not simple as a matter of law,” she shared.

The case remains open.

“The bottom line for subscription and membership businesses is this: adequate disclosure of a cumbersome cancellation process does not make it simple, and a cancellation experience that is structurally harder than sign-up is the kind of asymmetry that draws FTC attention regardless of whether a new rule is on the books,” Frankfurt, Kurnit, Klein, and Selz explained.

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When people move into a new home, they will often purchase new furniture for their new surroundings.

Furniture stores rely on a strong housing market to prompt customers to purchase their living room, dining room, and bedroom furnishings. When the housing market declines, as it has over the last four years, so do furniture sales.

Existing home sales have declined to their lowest level in 30 years after mortgage rates spiked from over 3% in late 2021 to about 7.24% on Oct. 26, 2026, according to Realtor.com. In the first half of 2026, furniture store sales declined 2% year-to-date to $65.1 billion, according to U.S. Department of Commerce in July.

Four independent furniture retailers are permanently closing their businesses in October and November.DragonImages / Getty Images

Four furniture retailers close businesses

Four independent furniture retailers — Garnand Fine Furniture, Hurwitz Mintz, American Home Furniture & Mattress, and Hart’s Home Furniture & Mattress — announced they would close their stores and liquidate all inventory over the next few weeks.

“The traditional business model is no longer viable,” bankruptcy attorney Jonathan Shenson, of Greenberg Glusker LLP told TheStreet in an email. “Consumers are sourcing furniture overseas, purchasing online, or buying through mass distributors and national chains such as Ikea, and independent, family-owned stores cannot compete on those economics.”

“At the same time, furniture is a big-ticket, discretionary purchase, and a weakening economy and persistent inflation have led customers to defer those purchases. Where the underlying business is no longer sustainable, an orderly liquidation of inventory and closure is often the most rational outcome, and that is the pattern emerging across the sector,” Shenson said.

116-year-old store liquidates

Garnand Fine Furniture in Garden City, Kan., which at its peak operated five locations in Kansas and one in Nebraska, is closing its final location at 1401 East Kansas Ave. after operating for 116 years, the company said in an Oct. 22 statement.

The family-owned and operated store will be open for the next four to five weeks or however long it takes to liquidate its inventory, a person who answered the store phone said on Oct. 26.

“The decision comes after much consideration and marks the end of a truly remarkable chapter — one made possible by the loyalty, friendship and trust generations of customers have placed in Garnand Fine Furniture over more than a century,” the retailer said in a statement.

Garnand Fine Furniture did not state a specific reason for closing the store.

Another store closes after 102 years

Family-owned Hurwitz Mintz in Metairie, La., announced on its website that it is closing after 102 years of operating but has not set a final date of operations.

“Thank you for more than a century of shopping with Hurwitz Mintz!,” the company said on its website. “Until we say goodbye, we invite you to enjoy tremendous savings of 60% to 70% off storewide.”

Hurwitz Mintz also did not state a reason for closing.

Albuquerque, N.M.-based American Home Furniture & Mattress, which has been in business for 90 years, announced on its website that it is going out of business and liquidating its inventory. The store will close its doors permanently in a couple of weeks after it finishes selling off its inventory, a person who answered the store phone said on Oct. 26.

American Home Furniture & Mattress did not indicate why it was shutting down.

Finally, Auburn, Mass.-based Hart’s Home Furniture & Mattress, which opened three years ago, has scheduled a final day of operation for Oct. 27, which will be followed by an online auction at the end of the week, a person who answered the store’s phone said on Oct. 26.

The furniture store is closing after its building was sold to another furniture retail operation.

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