Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Martino to Speak to Young Entrepreneurs at Fairleigh Dickinson University Tonight

Once again, TelecomMarketplace.net Managing Director, has been asked to address "Entrepreneurial Studies" students at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, NJ. This is Martino's 6th time addressing students in the program at both the undergraduate and graduate level.

Martino's presentation will explore the challenges associated with start ups. The various financing alternatives available to entrepreneurs, including the benefits and challenges of each approach. Students will be able to interact and even provide Mr. Martino with feedback on his firm's most recent product release, TelcoSource

Mr. Martino will be followed by a presentation from active Private Equity Executive, Thomas D’Ovidio of Shoreview Industries. Together the two executives will be able to communicate to students both the entrepreneur's and the investor's perspective. Mr. Martino has either led or been a senior executive in firms which have raised over $2 Billion dollars in public and private funding.

Kit Digital Acquisition Watch

Kit Digital finally landed the capstone acquisition long rumored. The Ioco acquisition signals the completion of an active acquisition spree which leaves Kit as a clear leader in the management of video content over all 3 screens. The company now says it will be focusing on rapid integration of the properties and organic growth. As I've noted before, with the rampant growth in video content as the predominant portion of bandwidth traffic, Kit seems well positioned to capitalize.

Why is this important to our clients in the Carrier and MSO space?

For carriers, the purchase of bandwidth is increasingly being driven by video content carriage. That means that the enterprise clients of major carriers are in need of software, platforms and tools to manage their video inventory. Kit provides the tools which help organize, manage and distribute video content. Therefore, partnership opportunities abound. TelecomMarketplace can help carriers with the planning and strategy development to take advantage of these developments and ensure that they are bringing optimal value to their clients.

For MSO's, eyeballs are migrating to other screens. More and more entertainment is coming from over the top internet delivered sources, rather than the traditional cable subscription. MSO's need to attach their brands, services and relationships to their clients as the eyeballs migrate. As an incumbent who has the key video relationship today with end users, MSO's are in a position to introduce services and packages which allow users to access the content which they already purchase from the typical TV package. This will allow them to participate and evolve with the market rather than become a victim of its success. Time is of the essence for MSO's to be leaders in this inevitable transformation. Handled properly, the shift can be accretive and allow MSO's to dominate a larger market of services. Ignored, it can seriously erode cable subscriptions in a manner similar to the loss of wireline subscriptions for ILECs brought about by higher quality mobile services. Think Verizon Wireless\Verizon ILEC history when assessing the best strategy for MSO's to deal with a multi-screen public.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Public Private Partnerships for the Next Generation of Leaders

Initiatives like this one from Time Warner Cable are excellent examples of public private partnerships which help students while preparing our future leaders for the workforce. In this program, TWC takes every kids most prized possession, the mobile phone, and demonstrates the science, math and engineering behind making it work. Both educators and business share the same goal of developing a skilled workforce which will allow US companies the ability to dominate in the digital age.