Posts Tagged ‘Harmonic’

Ranking Broadcast Technology Vendors Part 2 – the 2011 BBS Net Change in Overall Brand Opinion League Table

broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast industry trends, broadcast technology market research, Broadcast Vendor Brand Research, market research, Top Broadcast Vendor Brands | Posted by Joe Zaller
Aug 04 2011

This is the fifth in a series of articles about some of the findings from the 2011 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS), a global study of broadcast industry trends, technology purchasing plans, and benchmarking of broadcast technology vendor brands.  More than 8,000 people in 100+ countries took part in the 2011 BBS, making it the largest and most comprehensive market study ever done in the broadcast industry.

 

Each year, as part of the Big  Broadcast Survey (BBS), we ask broadcast professionals worldwide to rank a variety of technology vendor brands on a wide range of metrics.  We use this information to create a series of reports, which through benchmarking and industry league tables” enable each vendors to understand its position in the market relative to their the industry as a whole as well as their direct competitors.

In a previous article we wrote about the 2011 BBS Overall Brand Opinion League Table, which shows how our global sample of broadcast professionals ranked 118 broadcast vendor brands in terms of their overall opinion of these vendors.

While it’s great for a vendor to be named to the top 30 for overall opinion, these rankings may be seen as somewhat one-sided because they rely primarily on the positive opinions of respondents. In order to get a better understanding of how broadcast technology vendor brands are perceived, it is necessary to look at both the positive and negative opinions of brands, and to take into account how these opinions have changed over time.

To achieve this, we first determine whether a respondent has an opinion of a brand, and then ask them how their opinion of that brand has changed over time – i.e. has it improved, declined or stayed the same.

When compared to the previously published ranking of overall opinions of brands, this methodology provides a more comprehensive picture of how a brand is perceived because it shows both the positive and negative opinions of each brand.

Sometimes these results highlight some interesting perceptions about brands.  Take for example the chart below, which is from our 2009 study.

 

 

 

In this case the brand that was top for “got better” was also top for “got worse.”

Given these results, it is perhaps more useful to find the Net Change in Overall Opinion for each brand, which is calculated by using the following formula:

GB-GW/# of total respondents = Net Change in Brand Image

In other words, the percentage of respondents who said a brand “got worse” is subtracted from the percentage of respondents who said their opinion of a brand had “got better” (ignoring the “stayed the same” number).

This takes into account both the positive and negative perceptions of brands, along with how these opinions have changed over time.  It also presents a more balanced view of which brands are getting better and which are getting worse in the minds of market participants.

Because some brands are polarizing (as seen in the example above), it’s possible that a strong “got better” response might be cancelled ut by a strong “got worse” response.  As a result some companies who were rated in the top 30 on just the “got better” score were not included in the global or regional top 30 because their high “got worse” score dragged down their overall result.  At the same time, a few of the companies with high “got worse” scores still made the top 30 list because these negative scores were cancelled out by even higher “got better” scores.

In order to arrive at the Net Change in Overall Opinion, research participants were asked whether their opinion of various brands had “got better”, “got worse” or “stayed the same” over the past 2-3 years.

.

The results of this enquiry are shown below in two ways:

  • An overall industry “league table” that shows the 30 highest ranked vendors for the metric “Net Change of Overall Opinion.”  The data in this chart is broken out globally and regionally.

 

  • An analysis of the “frequency” of appearance in the “Net Change of Overall Opinion” league table.”

 

The top 30 ranked brands for Net Change of Overall Opinion are shown below for both the global sample of all respondents as well as for all respondents in each of the geographic regions.

 

In all cases, these results are shown in alphabetical order, NOT in the order in which they were ranked by respondents to the study.

.

2011 BBS Net Chage in Overall Opinion League Table:

 

A total of 51 broadcast technology vendor brands are included in this table, illustrating the geographic variation of opinion.

In terms of frequency of appearance in this table:

 

  • 13 brands appear four times, meaning they were ranked in the top 30 globally and in each geographic region

 

  • 10 brands appear three times

 

  • 9 brands appear two times

 

  • 19 brands appear one time which demonstrates that some brands are strongest in one geographic area

 

 

Analysis of the data shows that are some clear market leaders on a global basis, while others are strong on a regional basis.

A breakdown of how many times each company appears in the ranking shows how many times each brand appears in the chart above.

 .

 

Brands appearing four times in the 2011 BBS Net Change of Overall Opinion League Table: 

  • Adobe, Aja Video, Apple, Blackmagic Design, Canon, Cisco, Genelec, Omneon, Panasonic, Riedel, Sennheiser, Sony, Tektronix

.

Brands appearing three times in the 2011 BBS Net Change of Overall Opinion League Table: 

  • Ateme,  Evertz, EVS, Harmonic, Net Insight, Rhozet, Rohde & Schwarz, Ross Video, Shure, Vizrt

.

Brands appearing two times in the 2011 BBS Net Change of Overall Opinion League Table: 

  • AKG, Digital Rapids, Dolby, Ensemble,  Front Porch Digital, Lawo, Telestream, TVIPS, Wohler

.

 

Brands appearing once in the 2011 BBS Net Change of Overall Opinion League Table: 

  • AmberFin, Audio-Technica ,Avid, Fujinon, Grass Valley, Harris, Inlet Technologies, Linear, Linear Acoustic, Miranda, MSA Focus,
    Nevion, Playbox, PubliTronic, Schoeps, Screen Service, Solid State Logic, Telecast, Yamaha

..

.

 

Frequency Analysis of the Brands in the in the 2011 BBS Net Change of Overall Opinion League Table:  

In order to provide a better understanding of which brands were most highly ranked in each geography, the data has been provided in the
table below, which shows the global and regional performance for each brand in the top 30 ranking of overall opinion.

.
.

Frequency Analysis of Brands in the 2011 BBS Net Change of Overall Opinion League Table

 

 

This frequency analysis chart shows that there are some interesting geographic variations in the data. Here’s a closer look at how brands appeared by geography:

 

Appearing in the top 30 “overall opinion” ranking globally + one region

Eight brands managed to achieve a top 30 ranking in theglobal overall opinion league table, despite being in the top 30 of only one of the three geographic regions.

  • Digital Rapids, Ensemble, EVS, Front Porch Digital, Lawo, Net Insight, Telestream, T-VIPS

.

 

Appearing in the top 30 “overall opinion” ranking in one region

The following 18 brands did not make the top 30 in the global league table of overall opinion, but they did appear in the top 30 overall opinion ranking in one of the geographic regions:

  • AmberFin, Audio-Technica, Avid, Fujinon, Grass Valley, Inlet Technologies, Linear, Linear Acoustic, Miranda, MSA Focus, Nevion, Playbox, PubliTronic, Schoeps, Screen Service, Solid State Logic, Telecast, Yamaha

 .

 

Appearing in the top 30 “overall opinion” ranking only in EMEA

  • AmberFin, Fujinon, Inlet Technologies, Linear Acoustic, Nevion, PubliTronic, Screen Service

 .

 

Appearing in the top 30 “overall opinion” ranking only in Asia-Pacific

  • Avid, Grass Valey, Harris, Miranda, MSA Focus, Playbox, Schoeps, Yamaha

 .

 

Appearing in the top 30 “overall opinion” ranking only in the Americas

  • Audio-Technica, Linear, Solid State Logic, Telecast, Wohler

.

.

Please keep in mind when reviewing this information that all data these charts are presented in alphabetical order, not in the order brands were ranked by respondents to the 2011 BBS.  Also, the charts in this posting measure the responses of all non-vendor participants in the 2011 BBS respondents, regardless of their company type, company size, geographic location, job title and budget for broadcast technology products.  Finally please note that this study evaluated a total of 118 brands.

In order to get full value from this data, it is necessary to evaluate these results on a granular basis.  If you would like more information, please contact Devoncroft Partners.

 .

.

 

This article is based on the findings from the 2011 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS), a global study of industry trends, technology purchasing behavior and the opinion of vendor brands.  With more than 8,000 people in 100+ countries participating, the 2011 BBS is the largest and most comprehensive market study ever done in the broadcast industry.

Devoncroft Partners has published a variety of reports from 2011 BBS data.  For more information, please get in touch.

.

 

Related Content:

Ranking Broadcast Technology Vendors Part 1 – the 2011 BBS Overall Brand Opinion League Table

Where is Money Being Spent in the Broadcast Industry in 2011? The 2011 BBS Broadcast Industry Global Project Index

Tracking Changes in Broadcast Industry Trends — 2011 Versus 2010

Broadcast Industry’s Most Comprehensive Market Study Reveals Top Trends of 2011

More Information About the 2011 Big Broadcast Survey from Devoncroft Partners

.

.

© Devoncroft Partners 2009 – 2011. All Rights Reserved.

.

.

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
No Comments »

Harmonic Q2 Revenues Falls Short of Estimates

Broadcast technology vendor financials, Quarterly Results | Posted by Joe Zaller
Jul 28 2011

Harmonic announced that its net revenue for the second quarter of 2011 was $134m, up from $95.5m in the second quarter of 2010. Including the contribution from Omenon, which was acquired in September 2011, the company’s revenue was up 5% versus the same period a year ago.

GAAP net income for the quarter was $400,000, compared to net income of $4.4m for the second quarter of 2010. Non-GAAP net income for the quarter was $10.5m, compared to non-GAAP income of $9.1m for the same period of 2010

The results were below both the consensus of equity analysts, who were expecting revenue of $139.4m, and Harmonic’s own previously issued earnings guidance of $137m-$141m.  The company attributed the revenue shortfall to lower than expected sales into the US cable TV segment, the timing of revenue on large encoding projects in the US market, revenue recognition, and an unfavorable margin mix.

On the company’s earnings conference call with equity analysts, Harmonic CEO Patrick Harshman directly addressed the revenue shortfall, saying: “I want to be clear that we’re not satisfied with the financial results of this quarter. Having said that though the delta between our previous guidance and the final result is modest, and while our near-term outlook has been affected by the marketplace issues, our strategic direction remains very much on track and our medium-to-longer-term growth outlook remains positive. I also want to be clear that once we confirmed we did not reach our revenue goals, we accelerated the process of determining and communicating to our revenue, earnings, and importantly updated outlook for the remainder of the year.”

On a GAAP basis, gross margins in the quarter were 46%, and GAAP operating margins were 1%, compared to 48% and 4%, respectively, for the same period of 2010. Non-GAAP gross margins were 51% and non-GAAP operating margins were 11% for the second quarter of 2011, compared to 51% and 13%, respectively, for the same period of 2010.

Revenue from Omneon product sales in the quarter were $25.5m, an increase of 15.6% versus the previous quarter, but down 4.3% when compared to the same period a year ago. Harmonic does not break out service revenue from the Omneon business, but CFO Carolyn Aver, in response to questions from analysts on the earnings conference call, indicated that Omneon’s service revenues were approximately 15% of product sales.

Harshman said that the Omneon integration has gone well overall, but he acknowledged progress has been slower expected with respect to both cross-training and cross-selling. Harshman said that the company has already realized some important sales synergies and that as a result the combined company’s revenue in the broadcast segment has increased significantly,  and that he expect to continue to additional progress in this area through the second half of the year.

International sales represented 59% of revenue during the quarter, up 26% year-over-year on a pro forma basis. However, sales in the domestic market business declined 15% versus the same period a year ago.

 

1H 2011 Performance:

For the first six months of 2011, net revenue was $266.8, up from $180.4 million in the same period of 2010. GAAP net income for the first half of 2011 was $0.9m, compared to $9.8m, for the same period of 2010. Non-GAAP netcome for the first half of 2011 was $20.7m, compared to $15mfor the same period of 2010.

 

Updated Guidance:

Aver provided update revenue guidance, saying that while Harmonic “is very positive on mid-to-long-term opportunities, the short-term domestic market issues cause us to be more cautious for the remainder of the year. At this time, we expect revenue for the full year to be in the $540m to $550m range. We expect gross margin to be in the 50% to 52% range with the product and geographic mix continuing again to influence whether we’re on the high or low end of the range for gross margins. We expect expense management as well as seasonality to deliver a sequentially lower operating expenses in Q4 by as much as a couple of million dollars. We do continue to target a 14% to 16% annual operating margin goal. Although, given the Q2 results, we won’t achieve that goal for 2011.”

 

Related Content:

Press Release: Harmonic Announces Second Quarter 2011 Results

Harmonic Q2 2011 Earnings Call Transcript

Harmonic Q2 2011 Earnings Call Transcript

Press Release: Harmonic Announces First Quarter 2011 Results

 

Tags: , , , , ,
No Comments »

The 2011 Big Broadcast Survey – Now Available

broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast industry trends, Broadcast technology channel strategy, broadcast technology market research, Broadcast Vendor Brand Research, Top Broadcast Vendor Brands | Posted by Joe Zaller
Mar 10 2011

After many months of work, I am pleased to announce that the 2011 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS) has been completed, and that reports from the study will be published soon.

If you’re not familiar with the BBS, it’s an annual demand-side study of the global broadcast industry. BBS reports help readers improve their strategic decision making, customer engagement, marketing strategy, product planning, and sales execution.

More than 8,000 broadcast professionals in 100+ countries participated in the 2011 BBS, making it by far the largest and most comprehensive market study of the broadcast industry.

Three types of reports are available:

  • The BBS Global Market Report is the broadcast industry’s first global demand-based study of the purchasing habits of technology buyers.  This report examines industry trends, major projects being planned, products being evaluated for purchase, current and future plant infrastructure and operational structure, broadcast technology budgets, and HD upgrade plans for a wide variety of products.

 

  • BBS Global Brand Reports are available for more than 100 broadcast technology vendors.  These reports provide deep insight into how each company is perceived by the market, along with comprehensive benchmarking of broadcast technology vendors on a wide variety of metrics, through a series of league table rankings

 

  • Twenty-six separate 2011 BBS Product Reports provide detailed vendor brand ranking for individual product categories. These reports enable users to benchmark their brand directly against specific competitors through a detailed understanding of the opinions of technology buyers who purchase, specify or use each product type.  

.

If you would like information about these reports and how they can help your business, please get in touch.

In addition to these paid-for reports, we will also be publishing highlights from the study on the Devoncroft website.  These articles will be posted on a semi-regular basis, so please check back often.   

You’ll also be seeing information from the 2011 BBS in a wide variety of other industry websites and trade magazines.

The tables below show the product categories and broadcast technology vendor brands covered in the 2011 BBS.

..

 Product Categories Covered in the 2011 BBS:

.

.

Broadcast Technology Brands Covered in the 2011 BBS:

.

.

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
No Comments »

Harmonic Announces Q4 and Full Year 2010 Results

broadcast technology market research, Broadcast technology vendor financials, Quarterly Results | Posted by Joe Zaller
Feb 03 2011

Harmonic reported that its net revenue for the fourth quarter of 2010 was $138.2m. This includes a full quarters’ revenue from Omneon, which contributed $30.9m, but excluded $0.8 million of certain deferred revenue that would otherwise have been recognized by Omneon had the acquisition not occurred.

Excluding Omneon, Harmonic’s Q4 stand-alone net revenue was $107.3m, up 8% from the previous quarter and up 24% from the fourth quarter of 2009.  International sales represented 54% of the company’s revenue for the quarter. 

In order to help understand the impact of the Omneon acquisition on its performance, Harmonic CFO Carolyn Aver provided the following slide in the company’s presentation to equity analysts:

.

 

 .

On a GAAP basis the company reported a net loss of $13.7 million in the fourth quarter, compared to net income of $47 thousand, for the fourth quarter of 2009. GAAP gross margins in the quarter were 44%.

For the full year 2010, Harmonic’s stand-alone net revenue was $386.8m, up 21% from 2009.   The company attributed its growth to the continued global move to HDTV operations as well as year-end spending by some customers. GAAP net loss was for the full year was $4.3m, compared to a GAAP net loss of $24.1m in 2009.

The company provided forward looking guidance, saying that it expects revenue for the first quarter of 2011 to be in the range of $129m to $132m, with GAAP gross margins in the range of 45% to 47%. Analysts had been expecting revenue of about $128.4m.

 .

Strategic Imperatives for Future Growth

On the company’s earnings conference call with equity analysts, Harmonic president and CEO Patrick Harshman said that the with the acquisition of Omneon, the company was now positioned as a leading infrastructure company for video, and that it now has unique opportunities to grow.

Harshman went on to say that the company had identified four strategic imperatives for the future:

“First, we intend to leverage our increased scale, solution breadth and competitive strength to expand our brand and deepen our customer relationships in both developed markets, while also continuing to work aggressively to capture greater market share in emerging economy markets.

“Second, we intend to extend our leadership position in new applications in new customer verticals; namely, multi-screen, new internet media services and video production.

“Third, our objective is to continue to lead the market in technology innovation and deliver on the exciting pipeline of new products and solutions we have scheduled for release over the course of the year.

And finally, we intend to continue to enhance our operational execution.”

 .

Omneon Integration:

Company CFO Carolyn Aver said that the integration of Omneon was going well and that company had taken the following actions during the fourth quarter:

  • Integration of the Omneon operations organization
  • Moved the Omneon manufacturing lines to Harmonic’s contract manufacturer in Malaysia
  • Integrated the Omneon G&A team with Harmonic’s
  • Migrated Omneon’s ERP process to Harmonic’s Oracle system
  • Physically relocated Omneon staff into Harmonic’s offices in San Jose California and the UK

.

Aver said that these actions would likely result in synergy savings of around $10m during 2011.

Harshman provide an upbeat statement, saying “Moving into 2011, we expect broadcasters, media companies and video service providers around the globe to continue to invest in producing and delivering high value video programming and services. You can expect us to continue to introduce innovative new technologies that enable this dynamic video marketplace to proceed. We’re excited about our expanding opportunities for growth in 2011 and beyond.”

.

.

You can read the full Harmonic Q4 and full year 2011 earnings release here.

A copy of the Harmonic Q4 investor presentation is here.

A transcript of the company’s equity analyst conference call is here.

A write up of Harmonic’s Q3 2010 results are here.

.

.

 

Tags: , , ,
No Comments »

Omneon President to Resign from Harmonic

broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast industry trends, Broadcast Vendor M&A | Posted by Joe Zaller
Jan 13 2011

Less than six months after the officially closing the deal to sell Omneon to Harmonic, Suresh Vasudevan has said he will resign from the company effective February 1, 2011. The news was disclosed via an 8K filing with the SEC.

Vasudevan was named president and CEO of Omneon in January 2009, replacing long-time Omneon CEO Joe Kennedy.  Following the sale to Harmonic in September 2010, Vasudevan was named President of Omneon at Harmonic.  Prior to the Omneon appointment, he worked for storage vendor NetApp for more than ten years, and worked at the management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. in New Delhi, Mumbai, and Chicago.

As part of the same filing, Harmonic also announced that Mark Carrington, who had been serving as VP sales for Harmonic-branded products, will now be VP of worldwide sales, and responsible for the entire sales organization and the complete product line. Before the Omneon acquisition, Carrington was the VP service and support at Harmonic.

This is the latest in a series of normal integration-related changes at Harmonic following the purchase of Omneon.  The company previously announced that Omneon’s marketing chief Geoff Stedman has been named Harmonic’s VP for Omneon and corporate marketing; and that Ron Howe, who led the Omneon customer service organization was appointed Harmonic’s , VP for Service and Support.

.

You can read the full Harmonic 8K filing here.

.

.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
1 Comment »

Harmonic Announces New Executive Appointments, Integrates Key Omneon Managers

Broadcast Vendor M&A | Posted by Joe Zaller
Nov 11 2010

When Harmonic purchased Omneon, they bought more than a video server product line.  They also acquired talent, and at the time the company said they intended to integrate Omneon’s management into Harmonic.  Today Harmonic revealed its first move in this integration process, with the announcement that it has named two former Omneon executives to key management roles serving the combined company

Omneons marketing chief Geoff Stedman, has been named Harmonic’s vp for Omneon and corporate marketing. In this role he is responsible for leading the combined company’s marketing communications.  David Price, who previously ran the company’s marketing communication function, will remain with Harmonic as vp of business development.

Ron Howe, who led the Omneon customer service organization, will take on a similar but expanded role for the combined company, leading the customer service organization for all Harmonic products. As Vice President for Service and Support, he will be responsible for driving the company’s overall customer service strategy, establishing consistent service level performance and delivering world-class customer satisfaction.

The company also said that it has appointed Mark Carrington to the role of VP sales for Harmonic.  He was previously VP service and support for the company

“As part of the process of bringing Harmonic and Omneon together, we are fortunate to be able to draw upon the expertise of the combined management teams to fill critical executive leadership positions and build on the strengths of the respective organizations,” said Patrick Harshman, President and CEO of Harmonic.

 .

You can read the full Harmonic announcement here.

 .

Tags: , , , , , , ,
1 Comment »

Harmonic Announces Q3 Results, Provides Detailed Omneon Update and Q4 Guidance

Broadcast technology vendor financials, Quarterly Results | Posted by Joe Zaller
Oct 28 2010

Harmonic today announced that its net revenue for the third quarter of 2010 was $104.8m.  This figure includes a $5.6m contribution from the two week period that recently acquired Omneon was officially part of Harmonic, and excludes $1.3m of certain deferred revenue that would otherwise have been recognized by Omneon had the acquisition not occurred.

Based on these revenue levels, the company posted a GAAP net loss of $0.4m, versus net income of $2.6m a year ago; and non-GAAP net income of $9m, up from $4.5m for the same period of 2009.

Excluding Omneon’s contribution, Harmonic’s net revenue was $99.2m up 18% compared to the third quarter of 2009 and up 4% sequentially, with international sales accounting for 48% of total revenue in the quarter. The company attributed this revenue increase to the global move to HDTV, which has driven customers to upgrade their SD and HD encoders and deploy switched digital video.

GAAP gross margins for the quarter were of 45% and GAAP operating margins were 2%, up from 43% and (1%), respectively, for the same period of 2009. Non-GAAP gross margins were 49% and non-GAAP operating margins were 12% for the third quarter of 2010, up from 47% and 8%, respectively, for the same period of 2009.

On the order front, the company reported that its bookings increased 22% to $97.5m, excluding Omneon, and that orders from international customers orders were the strongest ever.

Year to date, the company’s net revenue (excluding Omneon) was $279.6m, an increase of 20% versus the first nine months of 2009. 

.

Omneon Update:

On the company’s analyst call, CEO Patrick Harshman and CFO Carolyn Aver provided a detailed overview of the company, including the performance of Omneon.

Harshman reported that for the full third quarter, Omneon’s revenue was $30.3m, an increase of 30% versus the same quarter a year ago.  Omneon’s order intake during the quarter was $32.2m, were an increase of 16% versus the third quarter of 2009.

Omneon’s revenue for the first three quarters of 2010 was $90.5m, up 17% versus the same period in 2009.  Omneon’s year-to-date gross margins were 58%.

.

Harmonic – Omneon Synergies:

Harshman said that the company is realizing synergies between the two companies in four ways:

  • Sales: the company has now put in place a systematic way to cross-sell products, which is now happening

 

  • Products & solutions: the company says it is currently developing joint solutions

 

  • Organizational: the combined leadership team is in place, and all Silicon Valley employees have re-located to Harmonic’s new HQ.  Combination of regional offices is underway.

 

  • Financial: The company’s Q3 results show that the Omneon acquisition will strengthen Harmonics gross margins.  Harshman also said that the supply chain integration is complete and that the company believes it will achieve $8m – $10m in cost synergies by the 2nd half of 2011.

 .

Changes to Segmentation to Accommodate Omneon

Harmonic CFO Carolyn Aver reported that the company is changing the way it segments and reports revenue in order to better represent Omneon products and solutions.

On the product side, the company has added “production and playout” to the existing product categories (edge & access, video processing and services).   

On the customer segmentation front, Aver said that the company will add a new category called “broadcast, media and other,” and will combine “satellite” and “telco” into a single segment – the two had previously been reported separately.

.

Outlook:

The company is targeting Q4 non-GAAP gross margins of 50-52% on revenues of $127m – $132m.  The projected revenue excludes certain deferred revenue that would otherwise have been recognized by Omneon had the acquisition not occurred.

For the full year, the company is projecting revenue $412m – $417m; or $499m – $504m when taking Omneon into account for the full year.

.

You can read the full Harmonic earnings press release here.

You can read the full transcript of the analyst conference call here.

The slide presentation from the analyst conference call is here.

.

Tags: , , , ,
1 Comment »

Harmonic – Omneon Deal Now Official — Indemnification Holdbacks Top $33m

broadcast industry trends, broadcast technology market research, Broadcast technology vendor financials | Posted by Joe Zaller
Sep 16 2010

Yesterday, Harmonic announced that it has completed its acquisition of Omneon. According to the company’s press release, the deal involved an aggregate consideration of approximately $194 million in cash and approximately 17.1 million shares of its common stock, which represents an enterprise value of approximately $273 million, based on the value of Harmonic’s common stock as set forth in the definitive acquisition agreement and net of Omneon’s cash balances.

As is common with these deals, some of the proceeds were held back for the purposes of indemnification.  According to SEC filings the amount of indemnification monies set aside was about $33.9m, consisting of approximately $21 million in cash and 1,926,920 shares of Harmonic common stock (valued this morning at $12.9m).

The company also said that at the time of the transaction each unvested Omneon stock option and unvested restricted stock unit representing Omneon common stock became exercisable for or represented, as the case may be, Harmonic common stock, with the number of shares and, in the case of the options, the exercise price, being appropriately adjusted based upon a pre-agreed exchange ratio.

Harmonic will file financial statements for Omneon as an amendment to the current filing as soon as practicable, but in no event later than 71 calendar days from September 15, 2010.

You can read Harmonic’s full SEC filing here.

Tags: , ,
No Comments »

Value for Money Rankings of Broadcast Technology Vendors — The Top 30 Globally

broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast industry trends, broadcast technology market research | Posted by Joe Zaller
Aug 27 2010

This is part of series of posts about the how the brands of broadcast technology vendors were ranked by respondents to the 2010 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS).

Each year as part of the Big Broadcast Survey (BBS), a global sample of broadcast professionals are asked to rank their opinion of a number of technology vendor brands on a wide range of metrics.  This information is used to create a series of reports, which through benchmarking and industry “league tables” enable these vendors to understand their competitive position in the market.

More than 5,600 people in 120+ countries participated in the 2010 BBS, making this the largest ever and most comprehensive study of the broadcast industry. In addition to measuring a variety of broadcast industry trends, more than 100 vendor brands (in 27 separate product categories) were evaluated by respondents.

.

Recently, posts which rank broadcast technology vendors include:

 . 

This post looks at how respondents ranked broadcast technology vendors for what is perhaps the most subjective driver we measured in the 2010 BBS — value for money.

.

For some respondents value for money might mean low price, for others it might mean superior price/performance, while for others it could mean peace of mind in mission critical environments, regardless of the price.

Whatever the definition of value, the combination of a poor economy over the past few years and customer budget constraints have made many broadcast professionals more value-conscious than ever.  As a result, broadcast technology vendors must respond by continually delivering more value for less money.  This drives innovation in the broadcast supply chain as vendors are forced to compete on multiple levels.

Respondents were asked to rank broadcast technology vendor brands for “Value for Money” on a scale of 1-10 — with 10 being best in the market, and 1 being worst in the market.  The top 30 ranked brands for overall opinion are shown below for the global sample of all respondents.

.

In all cases, these results are shown in alphabetical order, NOT in the order in which they were ranked by respondents to the survey. 

.

Value for Money – The Top 30 Globally, Alphabetical Order

.

There are a wide variety of vendors on this list, including large & small companies and those who produce audio & video products.  In order to better understand what drives the perception of value, we need to look at some of the factors behind these results.  These include the number of products produced by each vendor, the geographic location of the each vendor, and the types of product produced by the top 30 value companies.

 .

.

Number of products per vendor

When reviewing these results it’s important to understand how many products are produced by each vendor on this list.  This will help us to understand if whether reliability comes from small focused companies, or large multi-product vendors. 

The 2010 BBS evaluated 27 separate product categories.  In the previously published top 30 quality rankings, and top 30 reliability rankings, single product companies (those who were covered on only one product category in the 2010 BBS) completely dominated the rankings with about 2/3 of all positions.

A breakdown of how many product categories are produced by each vendor on the top 30 value list is shown below:

.

.

Just over half of the vendors in the top 30 value rankings produce a product in only one BBS category (out of 27 measured).  This is slightly less concentrated that other findings, such as reliability where there were 21 single product companies in the top 30.

In the case of value, there is a mix of large and small, and single and multi-product companies.  It’s worth pointing out here that much of this list is made up of the industry’s largest multi-product vendors.  For example Grass Valley (10 categories), Evertz and Miranda (5 categories each), Sony (4 categories), Ross Video (3 categories), Apple, Black Magic Design, Cisco, For-A, Harmonic, Ikegami, Panasonic, and JVC (2 categories each).

 .

.

Geographic Location

Another factor to consider is the geographic location of each company on the list.  By this measure, companies headquartered in the Americas are the clear value for money leaders, while companies based in the EMEA and Asia trail the pack. 

.

.

Keep in mind that when looking at geography, it’s important to remember that many of these firms are truly global, with offices all over the world, regardless of where they are headquartered.

.

.

Product Categories

Finally, let’s look at the product categories produced by the vendors who made the top 30 value list for the 2010 BBS.

.

.

Out of the 27 product categories covered in the 2010 BBS, 21 appear on this list. This is on par with other metrics. For comparison, there are 20 product categories in the top 30 reliability rankings and 23 product categories in the top 30 quality rankings.

Signal processing products lead the list of products produced by the top 30 value leaders.  This is a fiercely competitive market that is at the heart of the transition to HDTV operations, and customers look for both value and quality.  Cameras and audio consoles were close behind, while microphones, production switchers, routing switchers and video transport also made a strong showing.

 .

Please keep in mind when reviewing this information that, unless otherwise specified, all data these charts are presented in alphabetical order, not in the order brands were ranked by respondents to the 2010 BBS.  Also, the charts in this posting measure the responses of all 2010 BBS respondents, regardless of their company type, company size, geographic location, job title and budget for broadcast technology products.  

In order to get full value from this data, it is necessary to evaluate these results on a granular basis.  If you would like more information, please contact Devoncroft Partners.

.

.

.

This article is based on the findings from the 2010 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS), a global study of industry trends, technology purchasing behavior and the opinion of vendor brands.  With more than 5,600 people in 120+ countries participating, the 2010 version of the BBS is the largest and most comprehensive market study ever done in the broadcast industry.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
No Comments »

Devoncroft Digest — July 30, 2010 – Earnings Season Continues, Grass Valley Finds a Buyer, More Broadcast Industry M&A, Harris Creates New Division, Elemental and Envivio Close Funding Rounds

broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast industry trends, broadcast technology market research, Broadcast technology vendor financials, Devoncroft Digest, market research | Posted by Joe Zaller
Jul 30 2010

The Devoncroft Digest provides an overview of and insight into industry news items that I think might be interesting / important for readers and clients. 

Here are a few of the things that have caught my eye this week.

Earnings Season Continues

A number of broadcasters, TV platform operators and broadcast technology vendors announced their earnings this week. With one or two exceptions the results were generally positive.

.

 

Broadcast Technology Vendor Earnings

Harmonic posted strong Q2 results.  The company’s revenue was up 18% versus the same period last year, and up 13% versus the previous quarter.  More importantly, the company’s net income of the quarter was $4.4m vs. a loss of $7.9m during the same period last year.

On the company’s earnings conference call and slide presentation Harmonic executives also discussed the pending acquisition of video server company Omneon, and provided a bit more information on Omneon’s business.  Omneon recorded bookings of $57.8m during the first half of 2010, a 19% y/y increase.  For the full year, Omneon is expected to have revenues of $120-$125m, with (non-GAAP) gross margins of 57-57% and (non-GAAP) operating margins of 6-7%.

The market seemed to like what Harmonic had to say.  On the day after the earnings announcement, Harmonic shares were up by almost 17%.

.

Technicolor announced its results for the first half of 2010 this week, which saw revenues decline 18.5% versus the previous year.  The company achieved EBIT of €15m from “continuing operations,” but recorded an EBIT Loss of €109m from “discontinued operations.”  The company attributed this EBIT loss “mostly to Grass Valley,” which found a buyer this week after being for sale for more than a year (more on that below).  More information about Technicolor can be found in the slide presentation that the company used during its analyst earnings conference call. 

.

Belden issued strong numbers for Q2, beating the expectation of equity analysts.  Driven by strong results from the Americas (which were up 27% y/y), the company’s revenues rose 24% versus the same period a year ago, and 6% versus the previous quarter.    The company issued an upbeat forecast and raised its guidance for the future.

.

Audio (and now video) specialist Dolby Labs delivered strong results for its 3rd quarter.  The company’s revenues rose 34% versus the same period last year, and its net income increased by 25% versus Q3 2009.  Dolby which has been pushing aggressively into the 3D and Digital Cinema markets, recorded a non-cash impairment charge of $9.6 million in cost of revenue related to digital cinema systems provided under operating leases to exhibitors.

Separately, Dolby announced an additional $300m for its stock repurchase program, which has the objective of offsetting dilution from the company’s equity compensation programs.

.

Cable technology vendor ARRIS announced its preliminary Q2 Results.  The company’s revenues were up slightly, but its net income and gross margins were both down.  Investors were unhappy with these results and sent the company’s shares down sharply.

.

Leading set-top box vendor Pace announced strong results for the first half of 2010.  For the first six months of the year the company’s revenues rose by 21% and profit jumped by 46% versus the same period in 2009.  Separately, the company announced its intention to acquire 2Wire (see below).

.

.

Broadcaster & Platform Operator Earnings

European satellite operator Eutelsat announced this week that it achieved a record year, and that its revenue and EBITDA growth both exceeded 11% versus 2009.  The company’s earnings press release that it now delivers 3,662 broadcast TV Channels, and that the number of HDTV channels had grown by 80% during 2010.

.

Belo, one of the largest pure-play TV broadcasters in the US delivered strong results for its second quarter of 2010.  The company’s revenue for Q2 was up by 13% versus 2009, and its net income almost doubled.  Significantly the company’s revenue from the automobile sector was up by 51% and its digital (website) revenues grew by 14%. 

.

US cable operator Comcast reported that its revenues increased by 6.1% in its second quarter of 2010/  The company’s operating income and cash flow were both up, but it lost 256,000 basic video subscribers.  The company, which is currently seeking approval to purchase NBC-Universal, disclosed that it spent a total of $59m on the deal during the quarter

.

UK-based Virgin Media delivered strong results for its second quarter.  The company’s revenue, operating income and cash flow all increased. 

.

 .

Broadcast Industry M&A Continues

Multiple broadcast technology M&A deals were announced today:

  • Grass Valley is to be acquired by Francisco Partners, a private equity firm
  • Ross Video is buying Codan
  • Pace announced  proposed their acquisition of 2Wire

 

Francisco Partners has made a binding offer to buy 100% of the shares in Grass Valley. 

After more than a year on the block, and several rumored bids, Technicolor appears to have found a buyer for Grass Valley – a Private Equity firm called Francisco Partners.    According to Technicolor CFO Stephane Rougeot “This binding offer is a key step in the largest of the disposals we decided to make as part of the strategic refocus of our activity portfolio. This will clarify and solidify our financial profile. This is also positive news for Grass Valley Broadcast employees and customers who will benefit from the engagement of a new shareholder recognized as a leader in technology-based businesses.”

Francisco is buying all of Grass Valley, except for the transmission business, which is being retained by Technicolor.

Technicolor certainly did not get rich from this deal.  It paid $172m for Grass Valley in 2002, and then acquiring multiple companies (including Canopus for more than $100m) over the past few years, the company has now struck a deal with Francisco Partners which according to a Technicolor press release values Grass Valley at $100m.

After reviewing the structure of the deal, one industry insider told me that Grass Valley was sold at what one industry insider described to me a “fire sale.”  In fact it appears that no money will change hands, and that Technicolor will actually pay €20m to Grass Valley in order to fund “ongoing management of the activity.”

For its part, Francisco Partners will sign an $80m IOU, which carries capitalized interest of 5% per year.  This means that Francisco will not pay anything for Grass Valley for at least five years, and that Technicolor will make a large cash injection into the company to keep it going. 

Clearly Technicolor wanted to get rid of Grass Valley and its associated losses so it can focus on its now core business activities.  The only silver lining for Technicolor is that it has the right to “receive additional consideration from the buyer based on the potential future remuneration of the new owners of the disposed entity.”

Grass Valley announced the deal in a press release and a letter to customers.    The company has set up a deal-oriented website where information about the transaction has been published, and has also created an “Ask Jeff.” (as in Jeff Rosica, head of the Grass Valley Broadcast & Professional business) email address where questions about the deal can be sent directly to the company. According to Rosica, who was interviewed by industry website TVNewsCheck, it’s Business As Usual At Grass Valley.

Grass Valley is one of the industry’s great companies and I am sure that the people there are happy to finally have resolved their fate.  Let’s hope they can now focus on making great products – and of course money for their new owners.

.

Ross Video Acquires Codan

Ross Video, which is best known for its production switchers and newsroom automation systems, announced that has it entered into a letter of intent to buy 100% of the shares of Codan Broadcast Products Pty Ltd. The sale, subject only to the finalization of due diligence, is scheduled for completion on 31 August, 2010.  The deal will expand the Ross portfolio by adding Codan’s product range of routing switchers, signal processing and audio monitoring.  It also strengthens Ross Video’s foothold in the important Australian broadcast market. This is the second Ross acquisition in the past two years. In 2009 Ross purchased Dutch graphics firm Media Refinery.  

.

Pace to Acquire 2Wire

Leading set-top box vendor Pace plc announced its proposed $475m acquisition of 2Wire, a provider of residential gateways and associated software for the broadband service provider market.  According to the press release, 2Wire has established customer relationships in the tier one telco market, including AT&T, which has been a customer of 2Wire for 10 years and uses 2Wire solutions in its U-Verse platform.  2Wire is currently owned by a consortium including Alcatel-Lucent, AT&T, Telmex, and Oak Investment Partners.

Pace says that following the completion of the acquisition it will be the number one provider of telco residential gateway devices in the US and the number three globally.

 .

.

3D News – RealD Insiders Cash in on IPO

The Wall Street Journal reports that following on from their successful IPO, insiders at 3D firm RealD Insiders Made More Money in IPO than Company Did.  A skeptical Wall Street equity analyst is quoted in the article as saying that the only reason for the IPO was to generate liquidity for investors.

 .

.

Other Broadcast Technology Vendor News

Harris Creates New Division, Names Means GM

The changes continue at the broadcast communications division of Harris.  The company announced this week that it has created a new “Workflow, Infrastructure & Networking” (WIN) business unit, and named newly hired Doug Means as its General Manager.  According to the company’s press release, Means will lead the newly formed WIN business unit, which encompasses the Harris Broadcast infrastructure, networking, server, automation and asset management product portfolios. WIN was formed as part of an overall strategy to create scale, reduce organizational complexity and deliver more interoperable solutions to address the continually changing needs of Harris Broadcast customers.

.

…

 Ross Video Appoints Nigel Spratling to Marketing Role

Production switcher specialist Ross Video has appointed industry veteran Nigel Spratling to a marketing role at the company.  Spratling was most recently the CEO of Echolab, which was forced to liquidate earlier this year when its primary shareholder pulled the plug.  The fate of Echolab is still undetermined, but I have been hearing rumours that Blackmagic Designs is set to announce that they have acquired the company’s assets. 

 

.

Evertz Lands Big International Order

Canadian infrastructure vendor Evertz, which prides itself on not doing marketing, took the unusual step of issuing a short press release to announce the fact that the company has received orders in excess of C$7m from an unnamed international customer.   

.

Elemental Closes $7.5m Funding Round

Video transcoding firm Elemental Technologies, which uses GPU processing announced that it has closed a $7.5 funding round, bringing the total VC money raised by Elemental to more than $14 million.  The round was led by Steamboat Ventures, with Voyager Capital and General Catalyst Partners also participating.  Interestingly, according to an SEC document filed by Elemental earlier this year,  the company had provisioned to raise up to $9m.  The company says it intends to use the capital to expand its business in the United States and internationally.   Transcoding is a tough business as evidenced by the recent sale of Ripcode (who had raised considerable financing) to RBG.  Perhaps Elemental’s unique GPU-based approach will enable the company to thrive – it gets pretty good reviews from broadcasters according to an article about Pitch Blue which appeared in Broadcasting & Cable magazine this week.

 .

Envivio Raises $15m

GigaOm property NewTeeVee reported this week that Envivio, another player in the video encoding / transcoding space,  has secured $15m in additional funding and shaken up its management team. 

.

 .

Other Platform Operator News

Ascent Media Hires 3 New VPs

Ascent Media has appointed three new vice-presidents for its media and digital services operations in Burbank, CA. 

.

.

MobileTV News

The Wall Street Journal published an interesting article about the state of the mobileTV marketin the USA, which discusses Qualcomm’s Plans for FLO TV, the US broadcaster-backed Open Mobile Video Coalition and mobileTV operator MobiTV.  The WSJ’s finding?  The picture for mobile TV in the US is “fuzzy.”

 .

.

Other News

Broadcasting & Cable magazine’s Glen Dickson wrote an interesting article about the new HD file delivery platformsthat are being rolled out by Ascent Media and DG FastChannel. 

According to B&C, Pitch Blue, the new HD file delivery platform from Ascent Media and CBS is now delivering HD content to 1,350 US TV stations, while the new system from DG FastChannel has been deployed in 500 US TV stations.  The B&C article also highlights the need for transcoding systems in TV stations to convert these HD file to house formats.  As mentioned above, Elemental gets a good review from stations.    

 .

.

Market Research Note of the Week: Reliability Rankings of Broadcast Technology Vendors — The Top 30 Globally

Broadcast technology products are purchased by discerning customers for what are often mission-critical applications. Thus, the reliability of products is a paramount concern for buyers of these products.

To measure the rankings of the reliability of vendors, respondents were asked to rank broadcast technology vendor brands for “reliability” on a 10-point scale, with 10 being best in the market and one being worst in the market. The top 30 ranked brands are shown in the graph for the global sample of all respondents. There are a wide variety of vendors on this list, including large and small companies and those who produce audio and video products.

When reviewing these results it’s important to understand how many products are produced by each vendor on this list. This will help us to understand if reliability comes from small, focused companies or large, multiproduct vendors.

The 2010 BBS evaluated 27 separate product categories. As with the previously published top 30 quality rankings, single-product companies (those who were covered on only one product category in the 2010 BBS) dominate the rankings for reliability.

To read the full article, including a breakdown and analysis of the findings, click here.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
No Comments »