Now it all makes sense…..
Greed and digital convergence often go hand in hand.
Many a deal has been f*cked up by some greedy (usually white male) as**hole who thinks he can’t just stick to his business model and evolve into digital convergence - organically (read: later.)
No this guy - needs to try and take it all - NOW. He’s gonna make his play, and dam the logic of the alliances, the virtue of doing it right and smart - we want IT ALL - NOW.
That seems to be what Mike Ramsey at TiVO did.
Instead of going into a deal with COMCAST, which was critical - given the fact that PVRs are becoming a commodity and Microsoft and Digeo are on their asses. TiVO turned down a deal with COMCAST supposedly in favor of their “digital convergence/Home LAN” play. This is why they bought Strangeberry.
But what seems strange to me is why couldn’t TiVO have lciensed it software to COMCAST and STILL do their Home LAN play?
Why can’t they organically grow into a Home LAN play, evolving their brand into something that means - cool, compelling experience that works?
By turning down the COMCAST deal, Mike Ramsey got kicked out and now they’ll probably never ship the Strangeberry V3 - and they’ll just tube - as COMCAST will hook up with MS and squash them.
Oh well.
Here’s Peter Rojas’ engadget report….
Ok, now we understand why TiVo CEO Michael Ramsay was “promoted” out of his job last week. You know how people have been telling TiVo how the only way they’re going to survive would be to convince some a cable company to license their digital video recorder software for use on set-top boxes?
Yeah, well according to the New York Times last summer they were about to score a big deal with Comcast to do precisely this, that is until Ramsay pulled the plug at the last moment because he was convinced TiVo wasn’t getting paid enough money or given enough control over the service.
We won’t second guess his decision, since we don’t know the exact terms of the deal (though apparently they were pretty bad), but you know what, TiVo is sort of in a life-or-death situation right now and might have to take what it can get if it wants to stick around. The company is still not turning a profit, they’re facing increased competition from all sides (from cable companies with their generic DVR-capable set top boxes, Digeo’s Moxi, and Microsoft’s Media Center OS, not to mention stuff like MythTV and Beyond TV), and having deal like this in place would have been especially valuable in the wake of their recent break up with DirecTV. Now it’s Microsoft and Digeo who are testing their software with Comcast and TiVo that’s being left out in the cold. Ramsay says his strategy was to make an end-run around the cable companies and focus on turning the TiVo into a digital entertainment hub (i.e. “convergence”, i.e. the same thing everyone else claims to be working on), but now he’s out (at least as CEO, he’s staying on as chairman) and it’s unlikely that whoever succeeds him will have the luxury of grand visions: right now they’re going to have to focus on ensuring that TiVo is still in business a year from now.
[engadget]
This is important stuff. TiVO defined PVRs and now they’re about to lose the market. Same thing is happening to NetFlix as we speak.
Is it lack of patents and bank account that causes this to happen or it something more about execution and staying smart. It’s not good enough to be first and be really smart about your product offering or compelling experience.
It’s about staying smart and working with others. Not being too greedy and keeping your eye on the end-user’s experience - not your bank account. Or shall I say your future bank account.
Yah gotta follow DROC (do not run-out-of cash.) But you also can’t be too greedy. TiVO knew that COMCAST knew that DirecTV was blowing off TiVO. TiVo should have known that MS was sucking up to COMCAST - HARD.
Why was COMCAST trying to do a deal with TiVO? Cause TiVO has the best product and experience. But they weren’t able to come to a deal. Hmmmmmm.
Sounds like Apple to me.