[jofer]

Oil is low op-ex compared to its cap-ex. I don't have numbers to back it up, but I'd argue software companies' op-ex is still far cheaper than oil's.

Oil production and infrastructure maintenance aren't cheap. It's not like we just turn on the taps after the wells are drilled. However, labor is cheap, even in the software industry.

[prostoalex]

> However, labor is cheap, even in the software industry.

I think by this point we're accustomed to dealing with large software players who have scaled their businesses to the point where labor cost is indeed marginal to overall profit picture.

Back in the days attempts to build a small-scale software company (local Web design firm) or even a medium-scale software business (seller of compilers, industry-specific tooling, shareware) basically broke down because of unfavorable economics.

So we're dealing with a bit of survivor bias here - smallish and medium software firms for whom labor was a major cost center are either out of business, commoditized or both. In energy business, while the large companies still enjoy large budgets and economies of scale, it's still quite possible to be a small to medium size player and enjoy a steady cashflow.