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blinkx plc
Trading Update
BLINKX EXPECTS TO REPORT FIRST HALF REVENUE OF APPROXIMATELY $80M
Schedules First Half Results and Conference Call for 14 November, 2012
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. - October 29, 2012-blinkxplc (LSE AIM: BLNX) today announces a trading update for the first six months of the financial year ended 30 September, 2012.
The Company expects to report revenues for the first half of approximately $80m. Profit before tax, including one-time costs and amortization of purchased intangibles,will be around $2.4m, ahead of market expectations for the period.
S. Brian Mukherjee, CEO of blinkx, commented, "This has been an exceptional first half for blinkx. The business has shown strong growth, driven by its underlying fundamentals in combination with the ahead-of-schedule integration of Burst and PVMG into the blinkx engine andincreased advertising spend allocated to special events - specifically the summer Olympics and the US presidential elections. While these one-time events have provided us with a better-than-expected boost to revenues during the traditionally slower summer months,we anticipate revenues for the second half to be similar to the first half, resulting in a modest increase in our expectations versus consensus for the full year.
There are powerful secular trends driving the growth of video advertising: the proliferation of broadband and connected devices, and the accelerating migration and consumption of video online. This market momentum underscores the vitality of the sector and our business model. Based on our performance this period and the fundamentals of the sector, we remain confident in our outlook for the rest of the year."
The company expects to announce its results for the period on 14 November, 2012.
A Founder’s Guide to Replacing Yourself
A few weeks ago I made my toughest HR decision yet: I fired myself.
Entrepreneurs have plenty to worry about: raising enough capital to get the business to break even, keeping competitors at bay, recruiting talent, acquiring paying customers, rising above the noise, defining new industries and keeping their teams focused on innovating at the incredible rate of change the industry demands. Another is the worry that your board of directors will someday decide to unceremoniously shove you aside in favor of a more experienced, salt-and-pepper executive. Many founders, including Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Mark Pincus, have gone to great lengths to protect their positions as the primary leaders of the companies they built. These efforts include carefully selecting co-founders and entrepreneur-friendly investors as well as architecting stock structures and term sheets so that eternal control is all but guaranteed.
Given all of this, it can come as quite a surprise when you realize that despite all the protective measures you put in place, you want to fire yourself.
About this time last year, I came to that very conclusion. A few weeks ago I stepped down from being CEO of the business I built from an idea into a publicly traded company with more than $100 million in annual revenue. I am now the president and chief strategy officer and S. Brian Mukherjee is our new CEO. Brian, who joined Blinkx in 2011 when we acquired his company, Prime Visibility Media Group, was previously our EVP and GM for Search and Mobile. He’s an inspiring leader and an excellent manager and I believe the best person to take Blinkx to the next level as a thriving global media company.
I never saw myself as a quitter. Ben Horowitz (today mainly known for his venture investing but also a bona fide successful entrepreneur) wrote a blog post a few weeks before I made my announcement called “The Struggle.” In it, he talks about the dark moments entrepreneurs go through when they are building a startup and things don’t turn out the way they’d hoped. He describes the struggle as “the land of broken promises and crushed dreams. The Struggle is a cold sweat. The Struggle is where your guts boil so much that you feel like you are going to spit blood.” LinkedIn founder and venture capitalist Reid Hoffman calls this “the valley of the shadow,” alluding to a biblical passage often used in funerals. It is the sickening feeling you get when big deals fall through, linchpin employees bail or an industry leader launches a product that competes with yours. It is something that carries a certain stench, something entrepreneurs rarely discuss or admit, except perhaps in the therapist’s chair.
Fighting your way through the Valley can be harrowing. The gauntlet is thick with doubters and detractors. The technology forest is dark and deep and you need to fight your way past competitive warriors and financial dragons. Many entrepreneurs begin their ventures believing they will never meet such formidable times. For them, the Valley is not kind. Sometimes the tough times last for months. Often they are fatal.
Like all startups, Blinkx has been through tough times. This, however, is not one of them. Blinkx is doing well by all measures. The company is publicly traded with a market cap of $300 million. We employ nearly 300 people and are profitable. Last year we grew more than 70% and brought in well over $100M of revenue. Of course the fact that we are doing so well makes it difficult to explain why I would want to step down.
I am an engineer. I like to build things. Sometimes I like to take things apart just so I can learn how to put them back together. When I was seven years old, my dad came home one day with a computer. He helped me set it up and then put forth a challenge. He told me if I could learn and master BASIC programming, he’d buy me a video game of my choice. I was fluent in BASIC in less than two weeks but it took me more than two years to call the bet: I found that writing my own games was much more fun than playing someone else’s.
As it turned out, creating a new game was just the beginning. Once I’d built the graphics engine and tweaked the intelligence algorithm, I’d get equally excited about how to turn it into a business. I designed elaborate credit sequences, made plans about where and how I would distribute my games and what I would name the new company that would sell them. For me, building isn’t just about technology—it’s about the product around the technology, the team that brings it to life and the organization that builds it, markets it and distributes it. Being seven made turning these fantasies into reality tough, but the naïve optimism of childhood meant I assumed it’d all happen one day soon enough.
Decades later, had the opportunity to take some smart technology, build it into a new product and launch a new company. We founded Blinkx in 2004 and launched the video search engine in 2005 to a great deal of fanfare. The press lavished us with attention. We were hailed as the next Google and I was the poster boy for online video, beaming from the pages of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Newsweek. Two years later we took the company public in London. The capital we raised from the stock offering allowed us to continue to innovate new online video advertising technologies, build a global sales team and partner with major brand advertisers and their agencies. We introduced popular new search tools for consumers, highly effective video ad units for advertisers and became the leader in white label video search providing technology for AOL, Ask.com and Real.
Growth at Blinkx was fast and furious. At one point I was flying to London twice a month to talk to investors and spending another week each month in New York, Chicago or LA, selling to advertisers and content partners. I was invited to conferences from Monaco to Maui, delivering keynotes to audiences of thousands of people. On one memorable trip I flew to Hawaii for a day to meet a journalist, then Japan for two days of meetings, then London for a management offsite before heading back to San Francisco via New York: a full circumnavigation in less than a week. Time zones became an entirely irrelevant concept.
Then I hit a wall. It was April 2011 and I was in London negotiating the acquisition of Burst Media and sharing the news with our investors. We ran into some delays with the deal and before I knew it, my two-day trip had turned into a week. At one point I looked up at the room service trays and papers strewn about me, and I realized I hadn’t left my hotel room in more than 48 hours.
By the time I boarded a flight back to SFO, I was utterly spent. I usually look forward to air travel. The disconnection, the quiet, maybe even the altitude, lets me think and strategize without the noise that surrounds being a CEO. I expected to be elated: I had just acquired a company I was excited about, our investors were happy and I was on the way home to see my family. But I felt annoyingly negative. I tried to shake it off. I caught up on emails and watched a movie. But there it was again.
It took some tough introspection but by the time I landed in California I figured out why I was upset. Yes, I was overtired, and yes, I missed my son. But something else was troubling me. While I was abroad, our CTO met with Ask.com, an early partner who had always pushed us to do more. They were brainstorming future products, innovations in video search and new directions for the industry. It was the type of meeting I used to live for but I was too busy dealing with term sheets and finances and reports to be a part of it. As founder I never wanted to be that out of touch with what we were building. I felt like a part of myself was missing.
A week later I was still feeling just as unhappy, only I was sleeping in my own bed.
I still really loved what we were doing. The flame of passion I once had for my job was not dead. It was still there. It just wasn’t being used. Instead of thinking about the future of video online I was worrying about legal, HR and investor issues. Calculating. Negotiating. Reacting. The bigger your company gets, the more it probably needs a Jack Welch-type CEO. You need structure, organization, automation. As a founder, if you are successful, you will one day need to ask yourself if that person is you or someone else. I believe one of the most important things a CEO does is inject energy, belief and optimism into the company and I knew that if I didn’t find a way to get closer to the creative part of this role again, it would kill my ability to do that and, in the long run, that could kill the company.
A few weeks later, after another trip to London for an earnings roadshow, I told my board what I was thinking. I am lucky enough to have on my board a group of people whom I respect and who have all been in my shoes before. If you are an entrepreneur and still building your board, you want to be careful to invite people who understand first-hand the challenges and opportunities that come with building a company. Armchair CEOs are great at running armchairs, but nothing more.
One of my directors—Mike Lynch, the founder and former CEO of Autonomy—is a personal mentor. He has been the visionary tech founder as well as the operational CEO. After all he had done to help me get to where we were as a company, I was afraid he would see this as a failing in me. Instead, here’s what he said: “You are not alone. Most founders go through this process at some point. First you need to figure out what you want.” Then, and here he fell back onto one of his catchphrases, “make it so.”
I flew to Hawaii for a week with my family and spent much of the time sitting on the beach thinking while I watched my son toddle around in the sand. Did I want to leave the company altogether?
I realized that I was still as passionate as ever about Blinkx’s mission but that the reality of the operational job was getting in the way of what I enjoyed most and what I believed still had to be done: thinking about where the puck was headed. Sure, I can run things well, but I am best at the moment of disruption: building a new thing in a void or changing the status quo, thinking about the technology required to do that and inspiring people to come along with the new way.
For Blinkx to continue to be successful, I needed to split my role into two. I had to find someone to run the company and in doing so, give myself the space to work on the next generation of our product, the next disruption.
When I came back I realized I had two difficult tasks still ahead of me: finding my replacement and telling my team. We talked to search firms and looked at people we knew in the industry. We needed someone who could execute and lead the company as it continued to grow, someone understood the complexities and vagaries of online video and advertising. Most importantly, the person had to understand and fit into the culture that had made the company successful. No one we met felt right.
In November we acquired a company called Prime Visibility Media Group, an online performance advertising network and digital marketing agency. PVMG’s ad network reaches more than 600 advertisers and 350 publishers. The idea behind the deal was that that Blinkx would integrate PVMG’s platform with its own. Our video search engine would then respond to some of PVMG’s 1.5 billion daily queries with relevant video results. Those videos could also be paired with rich media video ads that monetize at a higher rate.
It was not immediately clear to me but after a few months of working with Brian Mukherjee, PVMG’s CEO, I recognized the future leader of Blinkx. I asked Brian if he was interested in the position and he jumped at the opportunity. We announced the change in early August.
If I’m really honest the hardest part of this transition is when I tell outsiders about my decision. Some people understand and are supportive. Every now and then I see a sideways glance or I pick up on something behind the eyebrows—a subtle judgment behind a question. People assume no one would voluntarily step back from running their own company. One thing that makes Silicon Valley so good at what it does is the undying optimism that pervades every aspect of its culture. In that sort of reality, people deny that tough times exist. When they hear you are no longer CEO they assume you must have been shoved aside or, worse—gasp!—you do not have enough ambition.
But, what they’re missing is that there is nothing rational about starting a truly innovative company. Most who try will fail miserably. If you want to do it, you need a deeper passion that overrules common sense and if you don’t keep that flame alive, you run the risk of ruining what you have built. At times like that, replacing yourself is the next disruptive move.
Logically and emotionally, I know I am doing the best thing for my company. Every now and then I step back to take a look at how far we have come in six years. It helps me visualize how much farther we still can take this. I love that we live in a market and a time and an industry that allows us to build something out of nothing. I love that I was able to turn my inspiration into reality and I love that I am still an active part of its future. For all we know, this could just be the beginning.
your welcome and I heard from someone who attended the shareholder meeting heard the mgnt saying blinkx had an unfair advantage over its competition!
That is a great sign that makes me think blinkx is way under valued...
google now 750$ per share blinkx under a buck come on!
:p
onwards and upwards..
Blinkx is making moves! Worth the read -- check it out.
Blinkx Reinvents Itself Again, Adapting to the Future of Video
By Wade Roush 9/18/12
Source: http://www.xconomy.com/san-francisco/2012/09/18/blinkx-reinvents-itself-again-adapting-to-the-future-of-video/
Thanks for the update. I'm an american following this stock, and it has huge potential- of course, who knows how that will turn out - but as TV keeps changing I can see blinkx technology getting integrated everywhere.
I have read the comments already made here and on the LSE site. I see that there is a good summary on the ADVFN site and the guy from share soc gave his perspective. Rather than try to compare/contrast etc I have decided to simply give you my take on events. From the comments I wonder if I am the Northern bloke who came late. I am not Northern-but Northern Irish- and I wasen't late-the meeting had not started until I took my seat! Different perceptions/different reality-probaly similar to our different views on the meeting!
They key to marketing is doing good things and telling people. I found out on Thursday the meeting was going to be a 3 hour session with many of the key players coming. When I arrived at 0840 there was tea/coffee and croissants waiting with a fruit "shot" starter. Great but I and others had just had breakfast before arrival! On the other hand this was the most professional AGM I have attended-my 3 rd and the best attended. The business is now a £100m t/o business which reflects the greater interest. Advance notice of the breakfast and the agenda/participants would be appreciated Julia/Edward.
BM opened up with a summary of the final results with all the cliches "strong momentum"; "aggressive share of market"; "fast moving"; "AOL"; Sony" etc. The key points were that advertisers follow the audience and the internet video traffic is the hot space and the hot market. Slide 6 in the finals result demonstrate this well and they used it again with traffic from 4.6 petabytes to 34 petabytes in 2015. He used slide 20 regarding the conversion from Adhoc to the larger market as one key growth challenge. Video advertising is a tiny component of the total advertising expenditure but growing rapidly. He made the comment that they had an "unfair" advantage whish was a use of words I feel implies deceit/cheating in this culture and that he should change that-we will see. It was a good overview and it gave us an opportunity to meet him. He came in for some criticism on the point that growth may have been as a result of the acquisitions rather than the growth of BLNX and that he was being somewhat disingenuous with his comment. He did not really answer that but I am not sure the Americans are not used to such direct criticism-I thought it was healthy
SC then took the stage with his usual enthusiasm. He was impressive. He is comfortable in his space and can fulfill his visionary role allowing BM to run the business. He pointed out that many people do not know what they are searching for and so they have changed the thinking to what he called " discovery search"-and they have totally restructured the site in such a way that longitudinal scroll gives people the options and horizontal scroll gives peole the choice in the area chosen. The beta site will run till October and commence formally then with advertising to catch the Christmas market. This is available across all the spectrum of devices due to the massive expansion of mobiles/pads. Only about a quarter of video seach is availble at the moment. I was impressed with the flexible/lateral thinking and they are adapting accordingly as things change so rapidly. The other key point for me is that this can all inter-act across youtube; facebook; twitter-that is going to give us massive exposure across the social networks and lead people to professional content and hence targeted marketing. I thought this was a key statement but I look forward to others perspectives on that
SC led the demo following the RNS on Tuesday and for a non techy like me it was informative
Julai and Colm the IT guy (Dubliner with US accent) gave us the TV demo with Roku and again a visual ad before a car related search-could have gone more smoothly but we got the idea. BLNX is third behind Amazon and Netflix on the Roku site
Each was then available afterwards on an individual basis. They all reiterated that they are not allowed under company law to make revenue predictions. I did ask JS r
YouTube app wrenched from next Apple iPhones, iPads
YouTube has been unceremoniously dumped from iOS 6, the latest beta version of Apple's mobile operating system reveals.
The Google-owned video website's native app for iPhones and iPads is bundled with Cupertino's shiny gadgets, and pops up to play video on behalf of other applications, but this cosy relationship is coming to an end - quite possibly a casualty of Apple and Google's ongoing thermonuclear war in the mobile sector.
Fanbois will eventually be able to download an app capable of playing YouTube videos - Google is working on one right now - but it won't be integrated into Apple's iThings.
Google's YouTube app follows Google Maps, also tossed out of the iOS party, revealing the increasing rift between the two tech titans.
Apple has its own native video app, called er Video, for stuff bought off iTunes, or synced from other devices over iCloud, but it is obviously no match for YouTube in terms content - there are plenty of things to watch besides cats and warbling hipsters.
Some speculate that Google engineered the app pull-out, preferring to have complete control over its app so it can have unique access to ad revenues from video playback. The advertising giant did not respond to The Reg's request for comment.
Additions to iOS 6 include an app for sharing things over Bluetooth, which will make it easier for two iPhone users to pass around files. This could tie into new iOS 6 app Passbook, which contains boarding passes and gig tickets.
And fanbois will be thrilled by a high-resolution 3D map of Birmingham in their next iPhone: Brum and Manchester are two British cities outside London that will feature in super-detail. Only an handful of European burghs qualify for the honour. The 3D maps are built using technology that Apple acquired when it bought Swedish image makers C3 last year.
from The Register
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"Apple has its own native video app, called er Video, for stuff bought off iTunes, or synced from other devices over iCloud, but it is obviously no match for YouTube in terms content"
Hmmmm. We know a video search company with a huge index of content (in fact around 35m hours of it), don't we boys and girls?
Suranga from blinkx video from about 1 mth ago..
London Games Attract blinkx Audience Streaming Beyond Sports »
16 August 2012
From the Queen to the Dream Team, videos featuring athletes with attitude and spectator scandals were a draw during the 21 days of the 2012 Summer Olympics
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. — August 16, 2012 — The podium results are in on blinkx.com! Now that the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games have come to a close in grand fashion, blinkx, the world’s largest and most advanced video search engine, has compiled the most searched non-sports specific videos during the 21-day gathering to celebrate Olympics entertainment beyond the events.
•The gold medal goes to the Queen! While the world enjoyed the fun and pageantry of the opening ceremonies in London, Queen Elizabeth observed the event with an unamused stare in place of a smile. The Queen’s subjects, as well as the rest of the world, could not get enough of her decidedly sour look, placing this video footage as the number one non-sports Olympic search over the course of the games.
•The silver medal goes to Kobe Bryant’s Dream Team boast! Bryant made a polarizing proclamation that this year’s U.S. Olympic Basketball squad could beat out the famed 1992 Dream Team. Coverage and commentary surrounding the statement, including an amused retort from legendary Dream Team member Michael Jordan, was the second most popular search around this summer’s Olympic games.
•The bronze medal goes to the 100 meter “bottle incident”! A bystander allegedly threw a plastic bottle on the track seconds before the start of the men’s 100 meter track finals, in which Usain Bolt sprinted to victory. The bottle-tossing offender was subsequently punched by bronze medal winning Judo star Edith Bosch, leading to a scandal in the stands and the third most video searches of the games.
For more entertaining and outrageous videos of the London 2012 Summer Olympics, and for seamless, instant access to over 35 million hours of video and audio content, visit www.blinkx.com.
blinkx Partners with Kiplinger for Personal Finance Wisdom »
1 August 2012
From your 401(k) to family finance, find expert advice and information at www.blinkx.com
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. — August 1, 2012— blinkx, the world’s largest and most advanced video search engine, today announced a partnership with Kiplinger, the award winning publisher of business forecasts and personal finance advice, to give blinkx users access to informative videos on everything from stock tips to smart saving suggestions. Leveraging its unique AdHoc platform, blinkx will place contextually relevant advertising against these videos and share resulting revenue with Kiplinger.
Publisher of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, the first magazine to offer money management advice to the American people, Kiplinger has been providing personal money management expertise since 1920. blinkx and Kiplinger will bring that same personal finance coverage to economically inquisitive video viewers, offering useful clips on investing, retirement planning, taxes, insurance, real estate, buying and leasing a car, health care, travel, financing college and more.
“We’re delighted to offer Kiplinger’s library of sound, unbiased personal finance reporting to our audience,” said Suranga Chandratillake, founder and CEO of blinkx. “Kiplinger’s is one of the most trusted and well-respected sources for consumers seeking financial advice, and we’re very pleased that this content will now be easily searchable on blinkx.com.”
“Whether you’re a recent graduate coping with student loans and credit card debt, or a parent looking for tips on tax breaks and coupon-free grocery savings, our video library has helpful personal finance advice for you," said Doug Harbrecht, New Media Director at Kiplinger. “We’re pleased to partner with blinkx to increase our exposure to new audiences and to make our video reports easily searchable for consumers around the world."
As the pioneer in video search technology, blinkx has built a reputation as the smartest way to find rich media on the Web. The company has signed more than 800 partners and indexed over 35 million hours of video and audio content to date.
blinkx hires new ceo Suranga is still on board as CTO...
http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/45745/blinkx-promotes-coo-to-ceo-in-board-shake-up-45745.html
motley fool article on blinkx
Blinkx
Now, here's a speculative punt if ever I saw one. Blinkx (LSE: BLNX) is an AIM-listed software company that makes a video search engine, and PlayDumb has been wondering whether there's a good techie opportunity here.
The video search thingy uses all sorts of clever stuff relating to speech-to-text, tags, images, titles, and other such wheezes, and it licenses some clever technology from Autonomy, the smart search experts recently bought out by Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ.US).
The Blinkx share price climbed a mountain in 2010 and reached a high of 158p last year, but has since slid back all the way to 34p.
The actual fundamentals don't make much sense at the moment, as the company is only just in profit, and if it is on the brink of a nice growth phase for its product, then the current P/E will tell us nothing of importance.
So what's the score on this one?
Well, a possible upside is that the technology is successful and the company is bought out by one of the big players a little way down the line, leading to riches all round. But on the downside, who's to say that one of those same big players (perhaps HP itself) won't come up with its own product and sideline Blinkx?
It's definitely one for a high-tech growth investor, if anyone, but those are pretty thin on the ground these days. Does it tickle your fancy? Do let us know, below.
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I don't know how video advertising will work in the future, but it's not going away. And no one is doing a great job of monetizing it- so I think Blinkx has a great future, probably.
Also, with Dish saying it can now skip commercials, new forms of monetization will have to arise to create a revenue stream for creators and producers.
AOL and Blinkx info (article from Sobeit on message board)
Don't know if this was posted before but it gives a good analysis of the Blinkx, AOL deal even though it dates back to February.
http://vator.tv/news/2012-02-13-truveo-out-blinkx-in-for-aol-video-search
What is interesting in it is the notion that the AOLs are attempting to compete with Youtube and rather than putting videos through Youtube which generates advertising revenues for Google they are looking for ways to monetise it themselves.
Not only that but given the following statement that "The partnership is a huge win for blinkx, because in addition to the new audience reach it brings us, we now have access to all of AOL’s video content – a significant, and very high quality library," said a representative from Blinkx to VatorNews." what has the partnership realised to date that we have seen in practice?
Quite a bit has changed, in my opinion, since that announcement and I expect even more in time and that we are only at the start of bigger things to come.
It is worth noting that AOL intends to launch The Huggington Post as an online streaming 12 hours video in the summer. Now where have we heard that before? Watch a number of videos at the following where this is discussed and what it will contain. This is hugely powerful and Youtube will have no answer to it.
http://on.aol.com/video/introducing-the-aol-on-network-517345527
It is worth looking at a number of the videos that will start automatically from this to see where AOL is going and how powerful it will be if it achieves it.
AOL is a big liner that takes time to turn around and so I expect the AOL, Blinkx relationship will take time to mature but I am pretty sure there is a lot of development going on in the background. AOL advertising is dimensionally a totally different fish from Burst and PVMG but they are in many ways compatible.
And what is AOL doing with all of its disparate advertising? It is consolidating it into one with on.AOL which was launched on 24th April of this year. http://news.yahoo.com/aol-launches-online-video-network-aol-222116148.html
Not only that, but it goes under the name "on.aol.com". Now I reckon that is a precursor to the new ICANN namings agreement when it will become probably "on.aol" when companies can use their names instead of the "co.xx" or "com".
And if you read the following from AOL on its advertising you see it is focusing on "channels". Now where have we heard the concept of searching through channels before? In Blinkx, of course.
The concepts expressed at http://advertising.aol.com/platforms/video are far closer to what Blinkx does than Youtube. In fact, I see that Blinkx has improved its categories search capabilities in the last few days and now sub-categories can be searched through visual icons. This brings it closer to the AOL model of presentation which is far more professional but also brings the Blinkx "duck" technology to the front.
By "duck" technology, I mean that the part of the duck above the water is very nice to look at as it swims gracefully across the lake but it is the feet underneath, going like the clappers, that drives it. That "below the water" part is Blinkx and it does it far better than Youtube does it.
Now, I don't reckon Blinkx will ever replace Youtube unless Google buys Blinkx but it does mean Blinkx can compete against Youtube in any market. After all, if Youtube is the Wal-Mart of the video world what is there to stop Blinkx becoming the Carrefour or the Tesco? They can both be successful and profitable.
I think the AOL deal with Blinkx has a long way to go unless Blinkx dirties its bib which I cannot see happening and based on what Armstrong was saying about the future of AOL, this deal alone probably gives Blinkx a very bright future.
So, if you want to do a comparison between Blinkx channels and AOL channels go to http://advertising.aol.com/platforms/video and click on channels.
It seems to me that AOL and Blinkx, technology wis
Mr. Chandratillake continued: "Through organic growth and selective acquisitions, and our unique technological capabilities, we have created a huge and growing video-enabled ecosystem of audience, content providers, advertising networks and advertisers. Our forward strategy and growth is based on further monetizing this opportunity.
The vast majority of our revenues are driven by advertising - sold both directly and through third parties - which exploits less than 10% of the total ad interactions that we now have the option to fill as a result of the recent Burst and PVMG acquisitions. Therefore, over 90% of the traffic available remains an under-leveraged economic opportunity. We see the exploitation of this as a very tangible and exciting opportunity against a backdrop where we expect to see continued growth in online advertising over the medium term."
We remain confident in our position in the market and the progress we have made this year, and are excited about the opportunities that lie before us."
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The fact that Blinkx is currently only exploiting 10% of ad space they could fill is jaw dropping is it not?
NEWS blinkx app on sony connected devices
SAN FRANCISCO, May 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- blinkx, the world's largest and most advanced video search engine, today announced that a blinkx app is now available on Sony Internet-enabled home entertainment devices. Consumers can now watch high quality videos from blinkx's extensive index of professionally produced content on a variety of customized channels.
"Sony is a premier brand in consumer electronics, and has helped re-define the way we bring high quality entertainment into our homes," said Suranga Chandratillake, CEO, blinkx. "We're thrilled to offer the blinkx app, which combines our robust search technology with our massive index of professionally produced video to Sony customers."
The blinkx app for Sony gives customers immediate access to blinkx's index of premium content through 18 distinct and engaging video channels, including:
* Sports: an action-packed channel showcasing the latest highlights, interviews and game updates from the world of sports
* News: a breaking news channel featuring top stories from around the world
* Popular: an editorialized roundup of the most popular videos from across the Web, including the latest shocking news from Hollywood and jaw-dropping human feats
* Fun: a riveting playlist of hilarious bloopers, amazing stunts, ridiculous pranks and cute animals
The blinkx app is available on Sony Internet-enabled devices including BRAVIA® TVs, Blu-ray Disc™ and streaming media players, and home theater systems.
As the pioneer in video search technology, blinkx has built a reputation as the smartest way to find rich media on the Web. The company has signed more than 720 partners and indexed over 35 million hours of video and audio content to date. blinkx has also opened its TV API to provide partners in the fast-growing Connected TV ecosystem—from box makers and TV manufacturers, to app developers and game consoles—access to blinkx's video index.
I agree but I still think blinkx will be better off as a stand alone company.
Thanks for the updates. I think Blinkx has a nice spot in the future of video growth. And it was spun-off from autonomy- we all know what happened there. cha-ching!
I can see this stock getting knocked around for a while, but it's profitable and could be a nice target for google or someone.
blinkx update on whats going on
http://www.businessweekly.co.uk/hi-tech/13878-cambridge-tech-leader-blinkx-mauled-in-bear-pit
still a strong buy in my book even tho they prob miss earnings by 7.5 million still 72% year over year growth and will break over 100 million in revenue!
Why blinkx is a buy.
Blinkx ipoed in 2007 with a price of .80 cents (its only .81 cents today.)5 years ago
blinkx had no revenue then and no eps .
5 years later and blinkx not only has revenue but it has + eps and bought two companies and still has no debt and still growing.
signed a deal with aol.
at .81 cents the MM's are offering blinkx shares for .81 cents.
top 6 holders of blinkx makes up for about 40% of blinkx shares or higher.
blinkx books around .30 cents a share.
consider the growth and this one looks real cheap to me.
thinking the same thing.
notice the volume is huge compared to normal on the london exchange blinkx shares blnx.l on yahoo quotes and the other day someone mentioned that 6 million were buys and 4 million shares sold and was still down huge for that day.
something strange going on but if your a buyer I thing blinkx is on sale.
I wished i had more $ to buy more!!
The sagging PPS for Blinkx is troubling... the company continues to build what looks to be good marketing relationships, but the market does not respond favorably.
Hopefully, BLNKF is not the object of market manipulations done by seasoned gamers of the market-system...
has anyone checked on the O/S numbers lately compared to back when it was above 2?
Have been preoccupied with some things and not following too closely the last few weeks.
blinkx surpasses 100 million uniques
SAN FRANCISCO, March 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- blinkx, the world's largest and most advanced video search engine, today announced that it has reached a new audience milestone, surpassing 100 million monthly unique visitors in January 2012, according to comScore data.
In January 2012, 181 million consumers in the U.S. watched nearly 40 billion online videos, with over 58 million U.S. users tuning in to blinkx for its extensive array of video content, ranging from hot Hollywood headlines and sports scoops, to cooking tips and breaking political news. blinkx offers a massive library of engaging and entertaining video from more than 720 diverse sources – a breadth of content that continues to grow with the addition of new partners such as Perform Media Group, Zazoom and Rooftop Comedy.
This thriving audience is attracting an increasing share of advertising dollars – eMarketer calls online video advertising the fastest growing segment of the market and has forecast that it will reach $3.12 billion in 2012.
"We're proud to have reached this important milestone," said Suranga Chandratillake, founder and CEO, blinkx. "We are committed to offering consumers the largest index and the most effective video search technology on the Web, through any device – whether it's on their laptops, phones or Connected TVs."
As the pioneer in video search technology, blinkx has built a reputation as the smartest way to find rich media on the Web. The company has signed more than 720 partners and indexed over 35 million hours of video and audio content to date.
blinkx news
Ahead of the Biggest Basketball Event of the Year, blinkx Scores Partnership With PERFORM »
5 March 2012
From the most thrilling three-pointers and dunks, to analysis of your favorite team’s roster and reputation, the best college sports videos are now available at www.blinkx.com
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.— March 5, 2012—blinkx, the world’s largest and most advanced video search engine, today announced a partnership with sports media group PERFORM, owner of one of the largest digital sports rights portfolios in the world. This partnership will give blinkx users access to a wide array of original and high-quality college sports content, allowing fans to keep up with the most exciting plays and players from colleges across the country. Leveraging its unique AdHoc platform, blinkx will place contextually relevant advertising against the videos and share resulting revenue with PERFORM.
From revealing player interviews to pulse-pounding coverage, blinkx will be your virtual court/field-side seat to every memorable moment of college men’s basketball and football. PERFORM, which commercializes multimedia sports content across internet-enabled devices, captures all the buzzer-beaters and dunk contest spectacles that make March the biggest basketball month of the year. Plus, with expert pre and post-game analysis, you’ll have all the insider info you need to boast about your bracket and impress the others in your tournament pool.
“Sports videos are always in extremely high demand on blinkx, and will be especially popular during the highly anticipated tournament in March,” said Suranga Chandratillake, CEO of blinkx. “We’re thrilled to add PERFORM’s high quality and timely college sports coverage to our index, giving blinkx users the sports action and analysis they crave.”
“In 2011, PERFORM delivered over 3.5 billion video streams with over 90 million monthly unique users in Q4, covering 200+ sports, and we are always looking to expand our video-hungry audience,” said Juan Delgado, MD Americas for PERFORM. “We are excited to partner with blinkx as its unique technology and advanced search capabilities will allow sports fans everywhere to easily keep up with their favorite teams and catch the thrilling moments they may have missed.”
As the pioneer in video search technology, blinkx has built a reputation as the smartest way to find rich media on the Web. The company has signed more than 720 partners and indexed over 35 million hours of video and audio content to date.
Currently the wait is annoying with Blinkx...
but I can recall doing that many times patiently on other stocks.
ISRG was one that tried the soul... several runs up from 90s and just COULD NOT get above 150... until THAT FATEFUL DAY it leaped up to 200... and once cleared of the 200-300s... JUST LOOKIT THAT BABY NOW!
Admittedly BLINKF is not a robotic surgical device... but hey, video apps are all the rage and this company is as competitive and innovative as any so far as I have seen. IMO worst case scenario might be some BUYOUT or MERGER that lessens the impact of MAJOR SUCCESS on its own.
What IS GREAT about BLNKF is that nearly weekly there is news of some innovative look at apps...
or some new alliance with a partnering user or technology...
shows that the folks are HARD AT WORK to grow the company in any creative way that is possible!
ONE DAY THIS JUST HAS TO PAY OFF for shareholders who are patient!
blinkx research in color impressive
http://uk.advfn.com/forum/18742451
blinkx ceo Q & A
for connected tv blinkx is the future of tv.
http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/9046-q-a-blinkx-s-suranga-chandratillake-on-connected-tv
Daniel Stewart reiterated its "buy" rating for Blinkx (BLNX), with a target price of 200p. The video search engine owner has won a contract to power AOL's search results and the broker noted that it will be able to add the internet provider's premium video assets to its existing content of over 35 million hours of footage. Daniel Stewart added that this win follows a number or recent partnerships, including with Roku, boxee.tv and Blegacom. The broker forecasts earnings per share of 3.3 cents (2.1p) for the year ending March 2012, putting the shares on a prospective multiple of 37.4 times, falling to 19 times in 2013. The shares jumped by 9.5p to 78.5p
UK A N A L Y S T (this means price expected to more than double from current price )
In another victory for blinkx, the video search company has won the right to power AOL’s video search. “This is certainly one of our more significant distribution deals -- up there with Ask.com,” said Suranga Chandratillake, blinkx founder and CEO.
Although no YouTube, AOL has grown into one of the biggest video hubs online, with about 450 million video views per month, according to comScore. Per the new deal, blinkx will also incorporate AOL’s premium videos in its own search engine.
Adds Chandratillake: "in addition to the new audience reach it brings us, we now have access to all of AOL’s video content -- a significant and very high-quality library.”
Based in the United Kingdom, blinkx attracts 55 million U.S. video searchers a month.
Video search engine Truveo -- which AOL acquired in 2006 -- had previously powered AOL’s video search.
Despite global economic concerns, blinkx recently reported that advertiser demand was as strong as ever. The company posted strong revenue growth for its fiscal first half, while pretax profits fell on costs related to a recent acquisition.
Continuing to grow its audience and blue-chip brand partners, blinkx reported a revenue increase of 63% to $44.6 million during the last six months ending Sept. 30.
What sets blinkx apart from its rivals?
“blinkx simply has better technology,” according to Chandratillake. Unlike Google or [Microsoft-owned] Bing, it was built from the ground up to search rich media, not text.”
“Because blinkx technology understands what’s happening in the video itself -- through visual analysis and speech recognition -- we’re better able to place relevant, targeted advertising in the content,” Chandratillake added. “The more effective the ad is, the better the monetization rate is for publishers.”
Last year, blinkx acquired Burst Media for $30 million. Also, it recently announced the acquisition of PVMG, an ad network and digital marketing agency, for $36 million.
Per the deal, blinkx is presently integrating PVMG's advertising platform to enable the blinkx video search engine to respond to a portion of PVMG's 1.5 billion daily queries with relevant video results.
With the Burst deal, blinkx hoped to bring its 35 million hours of online video and TV to Burst's network of over 157 million unique users.
Video ads remain the fastest-growing online ad format, and in recent research, eMarketer has forecast that the market will be worth $5.7 billion by 2014 -- up from $1.4 million in 2010.
This past year, brands such as Honda, Microsoft and Revlon booked campaigns with blinkx through various agencies, including Starcom Mediavest, Ogilvy and McCann Erickson.
In other video news, AOL recently selected Yahoo’s Right Media Exchange as the platform to provide real-time access to its video inventory.
Facebook would be an AWESOME alliance IF Blinkx pulled it off...
easily add $$$ to the PPS IMO.
I did not get into MITK but it surely looked/looks good... nice technology that others are either using under some sort of licensing agreement...
or stealing (which will lead to bad consequences and more $$$ one day) so either way MITK wins.
Just not enough money to go around... or I should say "extra" money not already committed.
I've also learned about the dirty underbelly of hedge funds, offshore shorting latitudes, & lax US enforcement agencies which makes for some interesting possibilities for manipulating stocks on the OTC independent of the actual company itself... whether profitable/viable entity with a business plan or just a scam being run. The case of the iHub Eleven (with its own dedicated board here) offers just a sneak peek... but there REALLY ARE trolls and operatives about manipulating stock PPSs & in some cases KILLING OFF legitimate companies unable to withstand the attack.
Nicer still... sometimes the bad guys do sloppy DD & underestimate a company which then puts their fingers in a cookie jar that can SLAM THEM GOOD! Trick is to identify such situations where the underlying company HAS THE STAYING POWER to win the LONG TERM GAME & accumulate shares on the cheap. THEN it is just a matter of WAITING the GAME OUT... & reaping the benefits!
Hopefully ONE SUCH WIN will give me enough extra $$$$ to add a few solid real companies to my portfolio of LT Holds.
grant
Hi I feel your pain I see so many good buys out there but no funds to buy them..
This stock is a unknown future GIANT..
AOL is huge for video search more hits for blinkx means more money.
Not one to start rumors or nothing I have no info but what if blinkx inked a deal with facebook I could then see blinkx at $5 a share what do you think?
my email is myfanhand@gmail.com drop me a line any time.
I liked that grasshopper saying.
ARAY up a lil still no where near the 11 i paid for it but better than 4 haha
onwards and upwards to all the grasshoppers in blinkx...
did you buy some MITK thats gonna be big too.
British video search company Blinkx saw its stock spike briefly this morning, following an announcement that it will power AOL’s video search. AOL is one of the largest video destinations on the Web, with about 450 million video views per month according to comScore.
Blinkx will also incorporate AOL’s premium videos in its own search engine. (Presumably, that will include TCTV videos, since we are owned by AOL). Blinkx itself attracts 55 million U.S. video searchers a month. AOL’s video properties are watched by about 40 million unique viewers (comScore), so the deal could significantly expand blinkx’s reach.
But doesn’t AOL already have its own video search technology? Back in 2006 it acquired a video search engine called Truveo. Up until recently, Truveo was powering all of AOL’s video search. But it’s been on life support for months, and now with this deal the plug is being pulled on Truveo.
Failed acquisitions aside, AOL wants its videos to reach the broadest audience. An internal-only video search engine doesn’t do much to reach new audiences. Of course, most people search for videos on Google, not blinkx. And somehow YouTube always seems to turn up as the top video results on Google. If your videos aren’t on YouTube, they are sort of invisible. But if they are on YouTube, you have to cut them in on the ad revenues. So media companies are trying to push video viewers to their own sites through deals like the one AOL just did with blinkx.
Some nice news lately, but the stock has taken a slide back to the buck range. Nice opportunity to add a few shares along the way and not be hurried about it.
Still looking good for the longer term and still appears to be forming new alliances that fit well with the overall business plan.
Sometimes there are stocks that have so much appeal that there just does not seem to be enough money to spread around to buy more of all of them! LOL...
then I have to recall the good ol' days: "patience, grasshopper!"
BTW... I misplaced your email address... sorry, something of a clutterbug these days.
AOL partners with blinkx
AOL today announced that its video search results are powered by blinkx. In turn, blinkx will incorporate AOL's premium video assets into its current index of over 35 million hours of content, making them easily searchable and accessible to users around the world.
The partnership expands the quantity and quality of AOL's video search results and also delivers integrated Safe Search tools that block adult oriented content from minors.
Search and watch on AOL.com and blinkx.com!
hope you had a good one grant and happy new year!
Everyone have a relaxing and refreshing long holiday weekend with friends and family!
Merry Christmas...
g.
Thinking a bit more about SC's statement there is of course a two-tiered approach to PVMG and that is to continue Blinkx and PVMG in parallel until you do the crossover and integration. It would not make sense to stop the current PVMG revenue stream if it is generating reasonable revenue.
The question is, what will the new "Search engine" be when you combine Blinkx' and PVMG's engines. It is clear from the statement that they are complementary not conflicting; Blinkx video, PVMG text based and a world leader in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
If it was good enough, it might give Bing or Google a bit of a headache as both try to use SEO to gain an advantage but are limited by text tags. But develop SEO combining the benefits of video, voice search with text search like a new Blinkx/PVMG engine and you have an unbeatable product. Such a product, in my opinion, is exactly what HP is looking for since it wants to go to war with Oracle and this would definitely put it years ahead of Oracle's limited search engine.
Given big mouth Larry Olson's attack on Mike Lynch, even having the audacity to claim that Oracle do better and quicker what Idol does, you can be sure HP will be gunning for him. You will note that Olson has not proven that "big wind" statement.
So, is it possible that Blinkx is now working under the lids on behalf of HP to produce a product they would really like to have and one they desparately need if they are to compete in the software market and given their statement that they are, for the moment, limiting the acquisitions, Blinkx would be the perfect vehicle to develop it. If it is a success, I could easily see a bid from HP at a nice healthy price being on the cards when the combined product is up and running.
I agree blinkx has made key buyouts and getting more hits than ever and will grow into the future blinkx know what they are doing to grow the company and make it better for the future of tv and thats where blinkx will be.
Blinkx has been steadily growing while increasing their value and market presence. It's only a matter of time before this company is scooped up from a buyout offer or the public "wakes-up" and recognizes their underrated strength(s).
IMO, this dip in PPS gives great potential to purchase/purchase-more. Next year will be very interesting. I feel by this time next year we won't recognize BLNKF at this price level.
Blinkx confident on video-ad growth... [MORE]
Video search company Blinkx PLC said Friday it hasn't seen any slowdown in demand from advertisers despite a gloomy economic backdrop as it posted strong revenue growth for its fiscal first half, although pretax profit fell on costs relating to an acquisition.
Comment from Suranga Chandratillake, founder and CEO of blinkx: "Momentum was driven by increased traffic through the blinkx engine and the continued success of our advertising platform, AdHoc, in attracting new marquee brands such as Disney and Kellogg's. Moreover, we made further advances in our cross-platform strategy, signing key partners like Aurasma, Roku and Orb Networks to extend distribution in the mobile and Connected TV arenas."
** Blinkx , the world's biggest online video search engine operator, has agreed to buy digital marketing agency Prime Visibility Media Group for $36 million in cash, and will partially fund the acquisition through a placing of new shares
good article on blinkx here is the link
http://www.businessweekly.co.uk/hi-tech/13037-new-animation-powerhouse-from-autonomy-spinouts
page views and ad revenues
according to this article an analyst at a US bank (Citi) expects youtube to get over one trillion page views in 2012 from which he estimated they would keep 1.119Bn USD in net advertising revenues after sharing some of the gross revenues with partners etc.
at 35Bn page views a month Blinkx should have about 40% of the page views and so as a rough guide might be expected to net about 440m USD in annual advertising revenues in 2011-12??!!
a simple way of looking at things perhaps, and blinkx did say that the full impact of the burst media acquisition would not be apparent until the second half of the year, but if this comes good then will burst media turn out to be the best takeover deal ever?
being optimistic has paid off so far with blinkx so a strong hold imho,
BLINKX POWERING VIDEO FOR POPULAR VISUAL BROWSER AURASMA
Radical app merges physical and virtual worlds; brings them to life through video and 3D
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - November 3, 2011 -blinkx, the world's largest and most advanced video search engine, today announced that it is powering video for Aurasma, the world's first visual browser for smartphones and tablets that recognizes physical objects and delivers related online content - videos, animations, audio or web pages - in real time.
Aurasma uses powerful image and pattern recognition technology to merge the physical and virtual worlds. With more than two million downloads since its launch in June, Aurasma uses real world images and objects as triggers, merging them with rich interactive content such as videos and 3D animations called "Auras". Available for iPhone4, iPad2 and high powered Android devices, Aurasma is available for free in the App Store and Android Market.
When Aurasma recognizes an object, related video is automatically played on the smart phone or tablet, pulling from blinkx's massive index. The user can enjoy the video and then opt to click through to transition to the related website. For example, a user watching a movie trailer about "Footloose" can click through to learn more about the new movie's cast, visit a site to buy tickets or sample the new soundtrack.
"We are thrilled to partner with blinkx, a spin-out of our parent company Autonomy. This agreement allows us to provide our millions of users with access to a rich index of Internet video content," said Martina King, managing director, Aurasma. "The same core technology, IDOL, is at the heart of all three companies - a testament to its vast potential to change the way in which we interact with information and computers."
"Aurasma is a killer application - one that will radically change how we interact with the world around us. By pointing your iPhone at a building, logo, magazine covers, an advertisement or a photo of famous athlete, you can be instantly transported to a multimedia universe, enhancing your real world experience in an entirely new way," said blinkx founder and CEO Suranga Chandratillake. "We're excited to see such a powerful application incorporating our technology."
About Aurasma
Aurasma is the world's first visual browser - a new platform technology that merges the physical world with the virtual. Available as a free app for iPhone4, iPad2 and high-powered Android devices or as a free kernel for developers, Aurasma uses advanced image and pattern recognition to recognize and understand real-world images and objects in much in way the human brain does. It then seamlessly blends the real-world with rich interactive content such as videos and animations called "Auras". Auras can be created for printed images, product packaging, clothing, physical places and users can even use the app to create and share their own. Since its launch in June 2011, Aurasma has had more than two million downloads. Over 500 partners in markets including retail, sport, automotive, consumer electronics, entertainment, advertising and publishing are using the free technology in their campaigns or embedding the technology in their own applications. Aurasma was developed by and is part of software company Autonomy - an HP Company.
grant email me at franksaidso@yahoo.com i want to tell you another company i found too.
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blinkx's unique, patented and award-winning video and audio analysis technology, which literally watches and listens to rich media content online, has enabled it to build a massively detailed, objective and scalable index. blinkx's index of over 26 million hours of video is searchable to a much deeper degree than the weak, manually-created, metadata-based approaches to video search of the past.350 media partners.
THE DISRUPTOR: Blinkx
THE DISRUPTION: Web video search and ad insertion
THE DISRUPTED: Search engines and the TV ad business
The largest segment of Internet advertising, thanks to Google, is search. And the fastest-growing segment is video. San Francisco-based Blinkx believes that by putting them together, it can create a business that is greater than the sum of its parts. Blinkx is a video search engine that indexes more than 14 million hours of video available on the Web, everything from YouTube clips to old episodes of Seinfeld. Blinkx's special sauce - something even Google doesn't have - is software that can turn speech into text and count how many times a word pops up in a video. This is very useful to anyone selling targeted ads for, say, Junior Mints. Blinkx can also cluster videos together by topic.
In June, Blinkx announced a video advertising service called AdHoc, which CEO Suranga Chandratillake, borrowing a phrase from Google's business model, describes as "AdSense for video." The ads can take many forms: clickable "bugs" that crawl across the screen, banners that appear around the video, and, perhaps most innovative, a list at the end of the video of all the products mentioned in it. This fall Chandratillake will try out the ad system in his own peer-to-peer Internet video service, Blinkx Broadband TV.
Blinkx faces some formidable challengers: Google (Charts, Fortune 500) and Yahoo (Charts, Fortune 500) have not given up on video search. But video is a different beast than the rest of the Web, and Blinkx has shown that it knows how to hunt it. If Blinkx can stay ahead of its giant rivals, it could one day take on regular TV. "It is only a matter of time before cable and satellite providers let you forage beyond the set-top box," Chandratillake says. "When that happens, you will need a really good search engine."
http://www.blinkx.com/news
blinkx video demo of broadband tv feature should be comming soon
http://www.blinkx.com/burl?blinkxreferrer=resultTitle&v=cLLA8__yYnQ6E7rbveReUw
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watch full length tv shows
http://www.tv.blinkx.com
htpp://www.blinkx.com
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