What is the economic state of SnapStream?

[tmar89]

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past few months, then you know that there has been some economic turmoil in the US (and other countries of course) and many businesses are hurting, financially. Obviously, SnapStream is not a publicly owned company and has no obligations to discuss its finances with us but as a long time user and customer, I was curious if someone from SS could update us on the status and longevity of the company and what plans they have down the line with respect to the non-enterprise consumer market.

Does the company feel like they can survive the current economic state? Will the company be releasing newer software for non-enterprise customers to help drive their revenue model? If so, what is the time line and what features are to be expected to compete with the current competing products? What kind of pricing models does the company plan on adopting or using down the line? Are there going to be new products?

These questions are important to me as a customer of SS products because with the assortment of competing and evolving products out there, I need to weigh my decision to either stay with SS products or move onto another product that shows progress. Obviously, SS will not encourage us to move off to another product but as many have cried out about before, we need some reassurance that our investment and/or future investments in the product line from SnapStream is a smart one.

Thank you in advance for your consideration to answer these questions.

[cat6man]

maybe you can also ask sony which product lines they plan to drop as part of their upcoming restructure?

to be serious, you don't really think this will (or should) be answered do you?

[tmar89]

Originally Posted by cat6man

maybe you can also ask sony which product lines they plan to drop as part of their upcoming restructure?

to be serious, you don't really think this will (or should) be answered do you?

Ignoring your sarcasm, wouldn't you at least like to know what the plans are of a company you spent money with or if they will be around next year so you can make educated decisions as a customer on what to do with your money in a capitalistic society that is in a recession?

And Sony is a publicly owned company which is obligated to putting out quarterly reports and news such as this one:
Amidst a global recession that has rocked the foundations of even the most well established corporations comes news today that Howard Stringer, CEO of of Sony Corp, has decided to eliminate SCE (Sony Computer Entertainment) and merge it with other divisions within the company -- specifically its VAIO and Walkman divisions. [more]

Again, the point of this post is to ask SnapStream to be a little more forthcoming with is non-enterprise customers.

[mayhem70]

Those are types of information a shareholder would receive. A simple consumer license doesn't equate to shareholder status. We just own a simple license. Also you can't compare apples to apples with Sony and Snapstream (public vs private ownership).

I'm just being realistic. You aren't going to get those answers on a public forum. MAYBE, if you arranged for a concall with Rakesh...maybe the marketing person...you might be able to get those answers.

[cfaslave]

Snapstream will never tell you (or us) how things are going financially other than very broad generalities. I think their Enterprise business has been pretty good and it likely has a nice profit margin, but even with that we don't really know as the economy has likely hurt the customers (or target market) of the Enterprise product somewhat.

That being said, I have no reason to believe SS is having any trouble at all. Maybe they've let a few people go (don't really know this) or cut back spending here or there, but really their focus on the highest profit margin business while maintaining the overall business (including consumer BTV product) makes a lot of sense in a tough economy don't you think?

Here's the thing about a private company sharing their "economic state". A company might be willing to say "we're selling more XXX then ever before, or sales are up from last year etc etc. But you'll very rarely hear "we're having trouble and cutting back" or "No new features for the year due to the economy" statements. Why? Because that would make more customers leave and put them in a worse situation.

Try getting Amazon to tell us how many Kindles they've sold. And that's for a public company that's doing quite well.

EDIT: By the way, don't feel like I'm bashing you or anything - I'd like to know those sort of things too. I just know (I'm in a financial-type position at a private company) that it's likely that SS can't and/or won't divulge much of this sort of thing.

[ZetaVu]

As long as they can keep providing me with guide data I am secure, if they can keep updating the product and fixing issues I am happy, and if they continue to develop the platform I am thrilled.

[tmar89]

cfaslave,
Thanks for the response. Makes sense coming from your POV.

[cat6man]

Originally Posted by tmar89

cfaslave,
Thanks for the response. Makes sense coming from your POV.

what he said (didn't mean to come off so sarcastic though........)

[GeorgeH]

Actually financial information is important as it relates to their ability to provide the guide services.

[TomXP411]

Maybe we should stop speaking for Snapstream and let them answer (or not, as the case may be.)

You like a good argument, don't you, mayhem?

[mayhem70]

That I do. I still like my money on not hearing anything though.

[blaze818]

i dont want to know about the economic state of the company, but rather the product development. i want to know if we should expect something new and big for 5.0, or maybe when we can expect things of this sort. i want to see a change in the front end of BTv as i am sure many people do. i havent seen any major changes in what see in our front end. i think it is time for something big in order to keep up with other products that can do the same thing or better as BTV.

[sean_snider]

I would seriously doubt much is going on in the consumer part of the business right now simply b/c if there was anything going on we'd know about it. . . I don't think they are doing poorly as a company (otherwise we wouldn't be able to write in these forums )

But considering the loooooooooooong down times between updates, the nearly non-existant blogs or forum posts about upcoming stuff. . .i'm not banking on anything.

[Terminal]

They might be doing pretty well. In an econmic down turn, staying home and watching TV is probably your cheapest entertainment option.

[Ineffigy]

A better question to ask would be, What is the companies road map for the consumer end of Beyond TV?

Personally, I expect that they have none. They've stopped developing on Beyond Media, and now I am starting to see the same thing occur with Beyond TV. They've shifted focus from Consumers to Business needs. I'm guessing they do not have the man power to drive both. Eventually, once they fill enough needs with the enterprise version of Beyond TV, I hope they will return to improving their consumer version. And there is room to make it a better product.