welcome back to hit modules lightning
round in the email of the week so first
subject matter is they say that
interactive advertising is going to
match TV by 2016 I always laugh at these
studies and surveys but what do you
think is that going to happen are they
delusional um I don’t think it’s
delusional at all i think television is
actually going to become more
interactive like for God’s sakes we’re
getting smart televisions just like we
have smartphones I think what’s
important is we have to start
distinguishing between television as a
distribution platform and television as
a content or a content format and that’s
really the important thing so it’s not
so much that it’s going to surpass it
the two are really going to converge and
become one in the same so you’ll end up
with interactive TV ads yeah actually i
think that line is going to blur and
people aren’t going to buy so much
internet versus web i think they’re
going to buy like okay we’re getting the
Fox American Idol we’re going to spend a
million bucks for it and that comes with
it but these studies just take them with
a grain of salt I mean I’ve just simply
gone crazy in Excel and I’ve basically
proven proven that video ads are gonna
surpass search by 2018 and that all mine
ads are going to stretch all TV ads by
2021 it’s really just going crazy and
you can support whatever you want
basically what I’m saying take out the
grain of salt next question Brightcove
files for IPO what do you think well I
think okay it’s not a good time at the
macro level if you take into
consideration that a lot of other
Internet companies like Zynga are
pulling the right heels but the reality
is Brightcove is actually in a unique
situation according to paid content to
dissect that the numbers they have about
twenty four point six million dollars of
cash and equivalents on their balance
sheet which gives them about 12 months
worth of runway so they sort of have to
either IPO or raise further financing
which could mean a lot of dilution for
the founders and VCS which they probably
don’t want to do however I think even
though it might make sense for a lot of
other companies to shelve the IPO I
think a lot of investors would probably
be interested in Brightcove because if
there’s anyone bellwether for online
video it’s Brightcove now you could say
Brightcove or gala which one is the
better bellwether for online video I
don’t have access to Allah’s numbers
because they have not filed to go public
but right now I think part of the appeal
for bright coves vc’s is let’s go to
market let’s go to the IPL do it faster
we are a perfect sort of representation
of online video which investors probably
want to invest
next question Justin Timberlake is going
to take my space he invested along with
specific media he wants to change
basically into music space he wants to
focus on music and basically compete
with VEVO YouTube Spotify Pandora and
all of these very sexy and in the news
and very is it crazy I mean should you
be spending any money on music in my
space I I think Justin Timberlake should
really stick to trying to strip Mila
Kunis in romantic comedies okay he he
can act and he’s decent at it and he
makes catchy music he that doesn’t mean
he knows anything about technology or
even necessarily anything about
marketing I think it’s a bad move
another celebrity trying to expand into
business if he was smart and he really
wanted to do this he’d do it on a
download and put his money behind it the
fact that he’s putting his face on front
of it it’s just a publicity stunt for
him if it works out he looks awesome if
it starts going bad he can just walk
away two things just to clarify he did
put his money but he’s also putting his
face there and I think Justin
Timberlake’s term sheet to invest in
watchmojo just went up in flames I’m
kidding next question so Google spent
225 million on slide last year smart
talent technology acquisition or gross
negligence well it goes I collisions
because they shut slide down in all its
products this year I mean you know I
think max left shin is a very smart guy
the fact that he was always trying to
make slide be worth more than paypal
that the previous company was involved
with I think was sort of just the wrong
approach it’s set him up i think for
failure because very few companies are
going to exit more than your previous
one and i think i don’t want to talk
about slide and google clearly very
smart guys even though they weren’t
necessarily directly involved with the
Google+ successful launch I think Google
needed some social mojo and they
probably thought they were getting it
was slide I’m going to put this more in
the context of were the VCS that were
basically giving these incentives to max
and his team to go after you know slide
shows and things like that like he’s a
smart guy accomplished he could have
probably done more interesting things
with this time so in the end I think
it’s less about Google and slide and
more about vc’s really setting the wrong
kind of incentives and long
targets for these very very smart on
sperms I could change the world but end
up chasing these sort of like you know
crazy ideas that are just you know
gimmicks and me toos anyway that’s that
lets not shift gears and talk about the
question of the week so first question
Emily who works in PR asks I think you
basically you guys talked about HP we
talked about HP last week and their head
of communication was basically demoted
not fired but literally taken in the
back cup his knees off and said you’re
gonna work on this more junior stuff the
question by emily is did the right guy
take the fall um i think it’s a little
bit of yes and a little bit of know if
their communications guy was really
worth his salt he would have been able
to you know he would have known about
this in advance he would have had some
better planning and a better strategy in
place to kind of deal with such a huge
critical announcement on the other hand
no they didn’t do the right thing
because he didn’t make this decision he
didn’t create the the communications
crisis he was just trying to deal with
what was handed to him that being said
the reason they say don’t shoot the
messenger is because we like to shoot
messengers and your PR communications
guy is by definition the messenger yeah
don’t be a politician it’s got to be a
yes or no this yes and no is not gonna
last very long so I get your question
Kelly from Milwaukee ass LOL is rumored
to be shopping itself is someone going
to buy AOL I think if the price falls
enough someone is going to step up which
I know goes against what I said last
week which was like a lot of the big
decision makers are going to remember
the disastrous deal and all that with
time owner but I think if the price
falls enough I mean aol’s dial-up
business still generates a lot of money
here’s what I think was a bit of a
tricky thing I respect Arianna
Huffington and I respect Michael
Arrington I think the price they bought
Michael Arrington for which was about
boomer 30 million is okay some kind of a
safety net there even though it Michael
Arrington leaves he’s got a great team
there you know how much value stays the
problem with Arianna Huffington whom I
respect just as much i’m not trying to
play it safe here is that for 315
million dollars there’s not much of a
safety net right so i think the problem
is not just that how do you justify that
expense it’s that if anybody buys AOL it
would have been for the revenue that
they get from the dialogue which is
shrinking but guess what it would have
also been for all that cash on its
balance sheet which could have been used
to do other things with so by blowing at
the cash on their balance sheet and
barring a company at such a high
multiple meaning that they have to
basically fabricate revenue for it it’s
just very very hard whatever appeal al
had probably got lost a bit so that’s my
verdict I I respect him Armstrong I
think all the people are doing their
best job it’s just you know what was so
appealing about them is no longer really
there they blew a lot of cash on these
acquisition it was like people make fun
of AOL the old regime buying bebo for
800 million 850 million dollars you know
in some ways the company has blown not
as much money but a hell of a lot of
money on much smaller deals and even if
some of them are good all that
integration and all that that
indigestion is going to hurt them going
forward so the AOL story remains to be
fully written but that’s just a tough
situation to be in that’s been this week
so make sure to start voting for the
company the internet company of the year
in 2011 and we’ll catch you next week
same time same place
round in the email of the week so first
subject matter is they say that
interactive advertising is going to
match TV by 2016 I always laugh at these
studies and surveys but what do you
think is that going to happen are they
delusional um I don’t think it’s
delusional at all i think television is
actually going to become more
interactive like for God’s sakes we’re
getting smart televisions just like we
have smartphones I think what’s
important is we have to start
distinguishing between television as a
distribution platform and television as
a content or a content format and that’s
really the important thing so it’s not
so much that it’s going to surpass it
the two are really going to converge and
become one in the same so you’ll end up
with interactive TV ads yeah actually i
think that line is going to blur and
people aren’t going to buy so much
internet versus web i think they’re
going to buy like okay we’re getting the
Fox American Idol we’re going to spend a
million bucks for it and that comes with
it but these studies just take them with
a grain of salt I mean I’ve just simply
gone crazy in Excel and I’ve basically
proven proven that video ads are gonna
surpass search by 2018 and that all mine
ads are going to stretch all TV ads by
2021 it’s really just going crazy and
you can support whatever you want
basically what I’m saying take out the
grain of salt next question Brightcove
files for IPO what do you think well I
think okay it’s not a good time at the
macro level if you take into
consideration that a lot of other
Internet companies like Zynga are
pulling the right heels but the reality
is Brightcove is actually in a unique
situation according to paid content to
dissect that the numbers they have about
twenty four point six million dollars of
cash and equivalents on their balance
sheet which gives them about 12 months
worth of runway so they sort of have to
either IPO or raise further financing
which could mean a lot of dilution for
the founders and VCS which they probably
don’t want to do however I think even
though it might make sense for a lot of
other companies to shelve the IPO I
think a lot of investors would probably
be interested in Brightcove because if
there’s anyone bellwether for online
video it’s Brightcove now you could say
Brightcove or gala which one is the
better bellwether for online video I
don’t have access to Allah’s numbers
because they have not filed to go public
but right now I think part of the appeal
for bright coves vc’s is let’s go to
market let’s go to the IPL do it faster
we are a perfect sort of representation
of online video which investors probably
want to invest
next question Justin Timberlake is going
to take my space he invested along with
specific media he wants to change
basically into music space he wants to
focus on music and basically compete
with VEVO YouTube Spotify Pandora and
all of these very sexy and in the news
and very is it crazy I mean should you
be spending any money on music in my
space I I think Justin Timberlake should
really stick to trying to strip Mila
Kunis in romantic comedies okay he he
can act and he’s decent at it and he
makes catchy music he that doesn’t mean
he knows anything about technology or
even necessarily anything about
marketing I think it’s a bad move
another celebrity trying to expand into
business if he was smart and he really
wanted to do this he’d do it on a
download and put his money behind it the
fact that he’s putting his face on front
of it it’s just a publicity stunt for
him if it works out he looks awesome if
it starts going bad he can just walk
away two things just to clarify he did
put his money but he’s also putting his
face there and I think Justin
Timberlake’s term sheet to invest in
watchmojo just went up in flames I’m
kidding next question so Google spent
225 million on slide last year smart
talent technology acquisition or gross
negligence well it goes I collisions
because they shut slide down in all its
products this year I mean you know I
think max left shin is a very smart guy
the fact that he was always trying to
make slide be worth more than paypal
that the previous company was involved
with I think was sort of just the wrong
approach it’s set him up i think for
failure because very few companies are
going to exit more than your previous
one and i think i don’t want to talk
about slide and google clearly very
smart guys even though they weren’t
necessarily directly involved with the
Google+ successful launch I think Google
needed some social mojo and they
probably thought they were getting it
was slide I’m going to put this more in
the context of were the VCS that were
basically giving these incentives to max
and his team to go after you know slide
shows and things like that like he’s a
smart guy accomplished he could have
probably done more interesting things
with this time so in the end I think
it’s less about Google and slide and
more about vc’s really setting the wrong
kind of incentives and long
targets for these very very smart on
sperms I could change the world but end
up chasing these sort of like you know
crazy ideas that are just you know
gimmicks and me toos anyway that’s that
lets not shift gears and talk about the
question of the week so first question
Emily who works in PR asks I think you
basically you guys talked about HP we
talked about HP last week and their head
of communication was basically demoted
not fired but literally taken in the
back cup his knees off and said you’re
gonna work on this more junior stuff the
question by emily is did the right guy
take the fall um i think it’s a little
bit of yes and a little bit of know if
their communications guy was really
worth his salt he would have been able
to you know he would have known about
this in advance he would have had some
better planning and a better strategy in
place to kind of deal with such a huge
critical announcement on the other hand
no they didn’t do the right thing
because he didn’t make this decision he
didn’t create the the communications
crisis he was just trying to deal with
what was handed to him that being said
the reason they say don’t shoot the
messenger is because we like to shoot
messengers and your PR communications
guy is by definition the messenger yeah
don’t be a politician it’s got to be a
yes or no this yes and no is not gonna
last very long so I get your question
Kelly from Milwaukee ass LOL is rumored
to be shopping itself is someone going
to buy AOL I think if the price falls
enough someone is going to step up which
I know goes against what I said last
week which was like a lot of the big
decision makers are going to remember
the disastrous deal and all that with
time owner but I think if the price
falls enough I mean aol’s dial-up
business still generates a lot of money
here’s what I think was a bit of a
tricky thing I respect Arianna
Huffington and I respect Michael
Arrington I think the price they bought
Michael Arrington for which was about
boomer 30 million is okay some kind of a
safety net there even though it Michael
Arrington leaves he’s got a great team
there you know how much value stays the
problem with Arianna Huffington whom I
respect just as much i’m not trying to
play it safe here is that for 315
million dollars there’s not much of a
safety net right so i think the problem
is not just that how do you justify that
expense it’s that if anybody buys AOL it
would have been for the revenue that
they get from the dialogue which is
shrinking but guess what it would have
also been for all that cash on its
balance sheet which could have been used
to do other things with so by blowing at
the cash on their balance sheet and
barring a company at such a high
multiple meaning that they have to
basically fabricate revenue for it it’s
just very very hard whatever appeal al
had probably got lost a bit so that’s my
verdict I I respect him Armstrong I
think all the people are doing their
best job it’s just you know what was so
appealing about them is no longer really
there they blew a lot of cash on these
acquisition it was like people make fun
of AOL the old regime buying bebo for
800 million 850 million dollars you know
in some ways the company has blown not
as much money but a hell of a lot of
money on much smaller deals and even if
some of them are good all that
integration and all that that
indigestion is going to hurt them going
forward so the AOL story remains to be
fully written but that’s just a tough
situation to be in that’s been this week
so make sure to start voting for the
company the internet company of the year
in 2011 and we’ll catch you next week
same time same place
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