I've said for years that the board stubbornly thinks this is a "media company" when it really has to be a software company. The fact that they had hired an ex-Fairfax executive (from the bad old days of Fairfax mind you), who then brought in all his old Fairfax buddies into the company shows is all you need to know about the top-down understand of what is required to turn this company around.
You'll note in their "digital transformation" plans, one of the key objectives is to allow third-party solutions into their tech stack. They haven't actually built any saleable IP because they are not an engineering company. Instead they piece together other people's IP, primarily Amazon, into a platform that has no real competitive advantage. This is how media company's operate - they see their content as being the saleable product and technology is a mechanism to deliver that content, rather than technology being what they sell and the content is a commodity that sits on top.
In the past month, Meltwater has made two big acquisitions in the social and influencer management space, so as time passes iSentia gets further and further behind in the technology race because they can barely pay the tech tech team they have never mind making acquisitions or putting together the kind of tech teams you need to build IP. Structurally, they don't have the global market they need to invest in technology at the same pace as competitors but the real problem is board don't even see this as a problem. Worse still, the situation that played out in Aus where Streem came in and changed the market dynamics, is happening in Singapore right now and presume eventually in rest of South East Asia, with John Crolls new company taking marketshare off them.
- Forums
- ASX - By Stock
- ISD
- Ann: Changes to Isentia's Board
Ann: Changes to Isentia's Board, page-13
-
-
- There are more pages in this discussion • 1 more message in this thread...
You’re viewing a single post only. To view the entire thread just sign in or Join Now (FREE)