Stardust Global Ventures

Our pal Andy Abramson just let this out.

VON Folks Resurface with 4G Conference, Team Up With Rich Tehrani

If you thought this would never happen because it would take hell to freeze over, it must have. Well at least that’s the rumor.

What I’m hearing is that long time VON business brain-trust, Scott Kargman, and VON Conference impresario, Carl Ford have teamed up with TMC’s Rich Tehrani to produce the 4G Wireless Evolution Website and a conference in Miami next February.

The two websites are expected to go live tomorrow.

[Read full post]

This is fabulous news and two really great people to take on a project like this. And it’s a big win for another pal, Rich Tehrani at TMC.

Kudos all around. Sheryl and I already blocked our calendar.

We received got what, for both of us, was some great news this evening. At the end of this post is the press release outlining the details of Logitech’s acquisition of SightSpeed.

Ken’s been a pretty outspoken proponent of SightSpeed for quite some time now. What began as an interview with CEO Peter Csathy led to a good friendship. Sheryl and Peter met via SightSpeed and she interviewed him on her Incidental Interviews in 2007. And as an outgrowth of that, we’ve both had countless conversations with Peter and folks at SightSpeed about the evolution and improvement of their solution. And while Peter and Ken don’t always see eye to eye in everything, we share a very personal interest and involvement in SightSpeed’s success.

This isn’t a first success for Peter. SightSpeed the third company that he has successfully handed off during his career incuding eNow to AOL and MusicMatch to Yahoo.

Congratulations to our good friend Peter and to all the team at SightSpeed for the succes from their dedication and hard work

Logitech to Acquire SightSpeed, Provider of Internet Video Communications Services

FREMONT, Calif., Oct. 28, 2008 and ROMANEL-SUR-MORGES, Switzerland, Oct. 29, 2008— Logitech International (SIX: LOGN) (Nasdaq: LOGI) today announced that the company has agreed to acquire privately held SightSpeed Inc. of Berkeley, Calif. for approximately $30 million in cash. SightSpeed is an award-winning provider of high-quality Internet video communications services. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in early November.

The acquisition of SightSpeed will provide Logitech with video calling technology and a software and services development team that can be focused on future video calling initiatives that can enable cross-platform video communications with an intuitive, lifelike experience, for people sitting in front of a personal computer or with their family in a living room.

“With this acquisition, we are significantly augmenting our current video R&D resources to help us move more quickly toward our goals for video services that complement the way people socialize, communicate and enjoy entertainment,” said Junien Labrousse, executive vice president of Logitech’s Products group.

“According to our research, there is a large untapped market of people who want to communicate with friends and family using video. But they want it to be integrated into their family lifestyle, which means going beyond the PC. We believe with SightSpeed we can help create the next wave of video communications enthusiasts.”

Founded in 2001, SightSpeed has approximately 25 employees. The company’s management team includes technology leaders with backgrounds in Internet services and software technology development. The SightSpeed services are based on SIP (Session Initiation Protocol), a standard that enables the services to be interoperable with other Internet communication services.

Impact on Financial Results for Current Fiscal Year
The impact of the acquisition on Logitech’s current fiscal year results is not expected to be material.

About Logitech
Logitech is a world leader in personal peripherals, driving innovation in PC navigation, Internet communications, digital music, home-entertainment control, gaming and wireless devices. Founded in 1981, Logitech International is a Swiss public company listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (LOGN) and on the Nasdaq Global Select Market (LOGI).

# # #

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including the statements regarding the expected benefits of the transaction, management plans relating to the transaction and the effect of the acquisition on Logitech’s financial performance. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause Logitech’s actual performance to differ materially from that anticipated in these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include Logitech’s ability to successfully integrate SightSpeed’s services, technology and operations, the retention of SightSpeed employees, and Logitech’s ability to successfully develop, introduce and market video communication services. For information regarding other related risks, see the risk factors section in Logitech’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2008, and our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, available at www.sec.gov. Logitech does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements.

Logitech, the Logitech logo, and other Logitech marks are registered in Switzerland and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. For more information about Logitech and its products, visit the company’s Web site at www.logitech.com.

Technorati Tags: SightSpeed, Logitech, video, acquisition

Our good friend Rich Tehrani wrote a great blog post last week. It really struck home as we read so many tales of companies struggling with “lean times” in the unified communications sector. It’s an interesting theme, since most of the people we work closest with are seeing great success and not really feeling a terrible pinch right now.

Strategy Change: Make Money

In my conversations with a number of CEOs of small tech and communications companies, one thing has become clear. The market for exiting businesses has become tougher. This is common sense and the added challenge is with today’s stock market valuations, there are thousands of bargains out there. This just means the odds of a start-up or existing concern getting picked up at significant valuations has been considerably decreased.

There are a number of company heads who have recently come to the conclusion that while hoping for an acquisition by Google, Cisco and others they need to simultaneously work on getting customers.

For most logical and sane people in any other market, this is business as usual. For some reason, in tech, you can have an interesting technology, have almost no customers (or focus on getting them) and get purchased for a nice valuation.

[Read Rich's full post]

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This is really great advice to everyone in business – make money.

If you’re looking for help in focusing your efforts through spreading the word about your products and services, integrating social media into your public relations efforts, or just looking for the eyes of an experienced team who can really help you hone and deliver, your value proposition, drop us a line.

Many of you know I used to live in a remote part of British Columbia, Canada. My son still does. A bunch of you are also aware of the many tales of bears I used to post, particularly to my VOX blog. Many was the time I went for my ritual walk in the morning and bears seemed to walk with me. It wasn’t a joke. Almost daily I came across a bear. Bears are no unusual thing in Kitimat, B.C.

My son just sent me a link to a youtube video that shows the more recent encounter of a Kitimat business with a bear. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did!

Technorati Tags: bears, sheryl breuker

Today we got an announcement about Truphone. Truphone is now available for Blackberry and it’s a long time coming.

We are staunch supporters of our friends at Truphone, but up until now, we felt very much out in the cold. We don’t use an iPhone, though we do have some Nokia phones through the Nokia blogger program via our great friend Andy Abramson. Still, our primary phones are Blackberry’s. This was a GREAT day in the Camp/Breuker household.

One of our big beefs with Truphone has been that they weren’t available to Blackberry users. They had long been available to Nokia users and more recently iPhone clients. Today they broke the barrier and made their fantastic rates available to those of us who are dedicated crackberry addicts.  As of today, Truphone now offers the ability to use it’s fabulous application and make very cheap calls around the world.

Kudos to the Truphone team, with a special pat on the back to pal James Body. Truphone really is an innovative company and one we will look to for great new ideas and technologies.

Technorati Tags: truphone, james body, blackberry, rim

This morning we woke up to an interesting email. It was very specifically about our relationship and asked a question that caused us to consider the ramifications of having such a public love affair. Here is the email, with names removed to not put ‘him/her’ on the spot:

I’ve gotta ask. After seeing Ken’s tweets for a while now and wondering for well over a year (from blog posts) – how are you two doing this “love thing” and keeping it up? Whatever it is that you two a drinking, I want some, seriously. Advice most appreciated.

Sheryl’s reply – My answer is complicated. It’s very difficult, but it’s part of who we are. Ken and I are the kind of people who quite honestly enjoy being at the center of attention. I remember a friend making a comment to me at VONx. He said, “You love all this attention, don’t you?” I told him I did. It’s
the truth.

Of course, being so public, making comments to one another in a public forum has it’s drawbacks. People get to see a great deal more than is typical. But something I’d really like to speak to is a lesson learned after failed relationships and with age.

We are not young ‘whippersnappers’ involved in a relationship. We don’t have grandiose expectations, but what we do have is an appreciation of how easy it is to fall prey to one of the most common of all undermining situations. Failing to show each other our appreciation and taking for granted the other’s presence.

I am not sure how many people who read our blog are aware, I’ve been married twice before. My first marriage lasted 17 years and culminated in 2 kids, my youngest who is 17, and my oldest who is 26. That marriage ended because we were both too young to appreciate the kind of work a relationship really takes and we took the other for granted. Second marriage came along and I made so many mistakes, failing to acknowledge I was an individual with dreams, hopes, and wishes. I wanted so much to fit the mold someone else was looking for, I paid no attention to what I was giving up, not the least of which was my country.

Then I met Ken. Ken has his own baggage and he can speak for himself on that. It’s not my place to explain who Ken is, which is an important point to be made. I take Ken as he is complete with his flaws. I know what they are, better than anyone, largely because part of our agreement is that we not hold back all the garbage. Life has gotten much too short at our ages. It’s slipping past at an exponential rate and there isn’t time to be wasted on games and hiding histories. I expect things from Ken. But it’s not a one way street. He expects things from me. We agree to everyday give all we have, even on the days we’d rather not.

Public loving has huge drawbacks, if you’re a private person. We aren’t. We do keep some things private, but we make so many mistakes in full public view, we’ve had to learn to be openly forgiving as well. There were many times early on that if I had been able to not love Ken I would have turned tail and run away. As this relationship has evolved I’ve realized, like it or not, wish to or not, I really do love this incredible man. He’s not perfect. I’m glad.

So, in answer to the question of what we’re drinking and can we share that secret, probably not. Everyone has to come to it on their own and until ready, advice asked for or not is rarely taken. If it were that simple we’d all sign up for the class early on, probably. (‘cept us stubborn ones)

I am under no illusions we have a road paved in gold, edged in roses and rainbows. That’s what we believe when we’re young and invincible. I’m far too old to worry about all that. I just want someone to share mid life dreams with, someone I can lean on when things are difficult and someone I can prop up, too. Ken’s pretty easy to prop up. And he looks good on my shoulder.

Ken’s reply – My answer is complicated too. The truth is that the loving relationship Sheryl and I share is very complex. Like Sheryl, I too am comfortable in the spotlight in many ways. It’s part of who we are, so being on stage, whether at a conference, or simply highly visible online, is simply part of who we are. And while I know some people were shocked, I loved being in a position to propose to Sheryl live on stage at VON with the event streaming live on video.

We aren’t kids. We’re both fully grown and mature adults. Sheryl mentioned her past. I was married for 35 years. Neither of us is in this with blinders on. And I bring plenty of baggage and history with me. Yet, Sheryl and I are committed to doing whatever it takes to work together as we protect and nurture our love, our friendship and our partnership. We do this every day. It’s an active part of who we are.

We’ve committed to each other. While we know full well that neither of us is perfect, we do believe we’re perfect for one another. Is it work? Heck, yes. Sometimes it’s tons of work. But Sheryl is worth it. I’m worth it. We are worth it. We know that we have a lifetime of work ahead, but it’s work together and we know the end result will be a lifetime of love and devotion sharing every day together.

We share of ourselves in an uncommon way. We’ve talked a great deal about our hyperconnected life. Some people find that odd, but for us, it’s an extension of our commitment to each other, a way to use the tools we love, and something we believe will be cpart of everyday life in the near future. We also share an open honesty that is more than either of us really had in the past. We share passwords for everything, read each others’ email, swap Blackberry’s and share everything. If you talk to me, don’t tell me something you don’t want Sheryl to know, because I won’t keep secrets from her. Ok, birthday and Christmas presents are different. But in more ways than we can really explain, we are one soul, one heart, one life together.

We don’t take one another for granted in any way. Sheryl is the greatest treasure of my life. I’m proud to be her man. I look forward to being her proud husband. I appreciate all she does. I value her above any other person I’ve ever known. She is the best thing that ever happened to me. How could I not shout that from the rooftops? And while our online friends see our love notes, blown kisses and affection openly (Yes, we’ve been told we’re gooey), it doesn’t end there. We hold hands and cling together in public. We kiss in parking lots, grocery store aisles, and anywhere we happen to be.

At 55, I have Sheryl. Many of you have seen her pictures. I certainly take a few. She is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Her presence makes my heart race. Her touch, just a simple touch on the arm, makes my breath catch. She is breathtaking and a divine goddess to me. I love her with a depth and breadth I couldn’t even have believed myself capable of before knowing her.

When you find that one great love of a lifetime, and you believe with everything you are that you have more than you ever dreamed possible, your life changes. Like Sheryl said, we aren’t young or invincible. And we  know it. We know one of the best things we can do for us, is to actively keep our love alive in every way, large and small, that presents itself.

Our loving relationship is part of who we are. It’s part of our identity – as individuals, as a couple and for our business. To not openly share what we think and feel with the world would be like hiding our head in the sand.

Technorati Tags: sheryl breuker, ken camp

Caught this from Doc Searls the other day and just had to share it. You may recall that Doc is one of the authors of The Cluetrain Manifesto, one of the cornerstones in philosophy of where our network technologies are today. This post is a great breath of life back into our heritage from Michael Specht in Australia.

This is perhaps the nicest summary of the Cluetrain ever done.

The Cluetrain rides againAlmost 10 years ago Chris Locke, Doc Searls, David Weinberger and Rick Levine published a book that was going to change the way we saw the world, The Cluetrain Manifesto.

The basic premise in the book is that markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, and honest, sometimes even direct. Basically you can’t fake it.

Most corporations, on the other hand, only know how to engage in a corporate monotone of mission statements, product strategies and,marketing brochures.

However everything is now changing. People are connecting, and working together. The Internet is enabling these conversations and there is nothing corporations can do to stop it.

With the book are 95 theses that summarise everything into a nice simple message. Yesterday I was re-reading them and wanted to share them with you all. So I created a quick slideshow, enjoy!

I’ve long had this idea that poking on facebook is under used. I know, many people will disagree, but I don’t care. I think pokes are useful and just possibly a way to let someone know you’re thinking of them.

I did something last week. I expanded my poke list by systematically poking everyone in my list, almost. Almost because I made a few errors, got confused over which end I started with and wound up duplicating pokes and leaving a few people out altogether. Still, it was ultimately successful.

Ken and I had to fly to Minnesota, that meant no tools other than my Blackberry to access the web. Not unless I wanted to pull out my laptop and set it up, search for a network and hope there was a free one somewhere. It’s really not worth it to me when I’m not alone, and I wasn’t.

While my blackberry is a great phone and web access tool, it takes a long time to poke 230 people with the facebook application on it. What hadn’t occurred to me was once I had poked all those people was how many were going to poke back. I didn’t count. I couldn’t, and for very good reason.

When you travel by plane one of the first things that happens when ready for take off is a reminder to shut your phone off. Yes, I have ‘accidentally’ forgotten, or intentionally, but this time I did the expected thing and shut off. That may have been a mistake. A serious one.

When we arrived in Denver, because we didn’t have a direct flight, I turned my phone on and it started the perpetual buzz that usually occurs when I get a call. Only it didn’t stop, it just kept going on and on. So I looked and there were untold numbers of returned pokes. It was almost shocking because by the time we left  Spokane in the morning I had only gotten to the F’s. So, now my mission was unclear because I not only had to start poking new people I also felt compelled to repoke all those who had returned my earlier pokes.

When we arrived in Minneapolis I turned my phone back on and was again bombarded with the now constant poke returns as well as messages from some of the pokees asking if there was an occasion or if I had had too much to drink on the plane. I had not. So the new dilemma was how to repoke all those people, finish my list and answer a lot of messages from those with questions.

This started yet another train of thought in my brain. One I don’t think is even yet finished. Why do people poke each other on facebook? I’ll tell you why I do and I hope it will make sense and not be too offensive.

A poke looks like this.

Ok, that’s done but why would you want to do it? For me it all started because I wanted to find a way to let the people I am connected to know I value them even though I don’t have time to talk everyday to all 240+ people on my list. During our trip to Minnesota it seemed extra important because I knew it unlikely I would have the time to do anything but poke.

To be honest, if I add someone, I am genuinely interested in that person. I read their profiles, I pay attention to what’s happening in their lives. poking may be all I have time for, but I do want people to know I know they’re there. They matter.

Well my little experiment in poking went a little crazy because I had no idea the numbers of people who would respond. Typically I only poke a few people regularly. You know who you are, because you poke me. And what does that mean? For me it means if you poke me, I poke back. Absolutely. It has never occurred to me even one time to not reciprocate. So, if you want my attention, poke me. It’s like a the old ‘reach out and touch someone’ ad. Touch me and I touch back.

What do you think about poking? Drop me a line or ‘poke‘ me.

Technorati Tags: facebook, poke, blackberry

I’ve been reading so much conversation the past couple of weeks about the death of Web 2.0 (Arrington) or not (Boyd). Michael and Stowe aren’t the only ones talking about it. The buzz is everywhere. Just this morning on Squawkbox, the failures of Jangl, TalkPlus were part of the conversation.

Make no mistake. Times are tough. Venture capitalists aren’t throwing money away. They aren’t looking for high burn rates. There’s a nice perspective on Mashable (Recession is the Mother of Tech Invention). It isn’t just the tech sector, VoIP or unified communications. Check out the equities market in general (thanks Don).

Times are tough everywhere. The Fed has been bailing people out, but in the tech sector, bailout is achieved by death and destruction. The last round we called the burst of the bubble, and that phrase has been kicked to death already as times have gotten tougher. But I don’t htink this is all as bad as many folks are saying. Colleague John Furrier wrote Gloom in Ventureland – Try Gloom Period – Innovation Happens Now in response to a Wall Street Journal piece. I agree with John that the WSJ seems to be calling for a dogpile on the Silicon Valley. Then again, remember we don’t call it the Silly Valley for nothing. There’s been plenty of silliness and massive funding of some of the most absurd ideas of all time centered there. And let’s not forget that in years past, the Silly Valley was the spawn of books like Po Bronson’s Nudist on the Night Shift. The Silicon Valley does not today, nor has it ever, represent the reality of competitive free-market business.

SV is a microcosm of a variation of what I’d call cronyism run rampant. It’s built on rumor and innuendo – smoke and mirrors – card tricks. Why is it surprising that when it comes time to actually build a sustainable business, some of those companies flounder and sink into the abyss?

What does this mean for the rest of us? It means we tighten our belts, make wise business decisions and investments, and we look at where the value is. Wild speculation doesn’t do any good in “fat” times. There’s just a more painful price to pay when the lean times come.

Is the industry in trouble? Not hardly. Whether you call it telecommunications, voice services, VoIP or unified communications, our sector of technology is going strong. And companies like IBM, Cisco and Microsoft continue to invest resources – R&D, marketing, sales and engineering – in building their sustainable and profitable business lines. These aren’t companies that are likely to play short-sighted games for the sake of quick return.

We’re in the middle of the ebb and flow of one of the largest industries ever assembled. In ebb and flow, there are going to be bubbles. There are going to be highs and lows. But the general level of the water, if you look at the horizon rather than at your feet, doesn’t vary that much.

Voice 2.0 isn’t dead because while we all talked about it, it was never really alive. It was an evolutionary path we’ve been following. I don’t believe we’re done following it. We’re simply in a time when fiscal responsibility, profitability and smart business decisions are necessary survival skills.

I think we’re going to see a number of companies, particularly small innovators, stumble and fall. For many, their cash burn rate has never been able to keep up with the investment or seed money in the first place. I expect I have some friends and colleagues in this boat. I’m sorry to see them struggle, but it’s how we learn. Some acquisitions will still happen, but they’ll either be very strategic, or a company with deep enough pockets may leverage a “pennies on the dollar” buyout with some measured speculation.

We’ve seen some acquisitions in the past year or two that I thought were pure fantasy. So far, those have proven to be non-actionable by the acquirer, so I’m sticking to that. Some money was wasted and some people will pay the price for poor judgment. I don’t think we’ll see any wild, speculative purchases in the near term. We’re going to see people doing smart things unless they slip.

See also Reality Check: Surviving Is Always Hard for Startups.

As part of all this conversation, talk of the value of social media often seems to come into play too. In general, social media is simply another evolution of the web. Remember when people didn’t have an email address on their business card? Or a web site? Social media is integrating itself into our culture of business in much the same way. And in lean times, it provides not just a source for commiseration, but a place to catch ideas and see how others are doing too. The social media tools we’ve come to embrace play a vital role in surviving the ebb and flow of industry trends. They’re our lifeline, and something to leverage to our best power. If you aren’t using them, you’re falling behind.

Falling behind when times get lean and tight isn’t a desirable position to find yourself in.

Now’s time to engage. Get into the conversation. Publish papers that represent your good business judgment. Demonstrate your acumen by how you present your story. Be smart. Work smart.

Sheryl and I have our sights set not to survive, but to thrive. I think that’s a good mindset for everyone in every business.

Ken has been writing about unified communications for quite some time on the Realtime Unified Communications Community. The work there began as a VoIP-focused community, but within months it became clear that VoIP was moving quickly through any disruption into becoming a mainstay of the telecommunications networking infrastructure.

For many, with consumer VoIP services, commercial VoIP solutions (from leaders like Cisco, Avaya and Nortel), Asterisk and other departmental or SMB-oriented solutions (like Jazinga most recently), to mobility and wireless solutions have all come together to encompass the broader field of unified communications.

Today we hear news and talk about Communications Enhanced/Enabled Business Processes (CEPB) as the next point of convergence. The truth is that there are multiple convergence paths in progress simultaneously. Yes, absolutely the integration of network service (data, voice and video) with enterprise business applications (think CRM, ERP, SFA and the like) is clearly underway. While much of the talk is relatively recent, the effort to unify services and applications has been in progress for many years. Today we have the networking technology tools to make it a productive and cost-effective reality.

Mobility solutions are converging as well. Integration of Blackberries, iPhones and other handheld devices into the business network (whether large enterprise or small business) is moving rapidly. We’re seeing more and more integration of the handheld into daily business workflows and processes. This isn’t just users cobbling together things they want to do their job. Today we’re seeing real integration and adoption of corporation-wide solutions that bring the power of both handheld devices and wireless services into the hands of business workers everywhere.

There’s another convergence zone that isn’t as widely recognized, but we see it as still being a part of unified communications – that’s the widening impact of what we call social media tools. These tools range from presence and status sharing (Twitter, Jaiku, Brightkite, etc.), to real networking managment sites (Facebook and LinkedIn), to the array of related and supporting services that add value to our daily routines (Jott, Phweet, Twitterfone, SpinVox) all come together under the umbrella of unified communcations as well.

We wrote about this in Is Unified Communications an Industry or just Buzz Words?. We broadcast an Internet Radio call-in in show talking about the subject a few days later via our Talkshoe, but for mysterious reason known only to the net gremlins, the recorded podcast of that show vanished into the bit bucket.

We both take the position that today social media tools are an extended aspect of unified communications. That means in the weeks and months ahead, we’ll be working in some new ways. As authors for Realtimepublishers involved directly in the Realtime Unified Communications Community, and as part of our growing success here at Stardust, we’ll be working jointly with a wide variety of both small and large companies. We’ll be working on sponsorships and partnerships. We’ll be writing papers and some ebooks (some are already underway). We’ll be doing some interesting new podcasts. And we’ll be exploring opportunities with many organizations across the industry to help them better integrate their technologies with social media tools.
 
Social media is a fundamental part of the unified communications sector. It’s tied to how companies communicate with customers and partners. It’s quickly overrunning the old media style public relations and advertising models. Old media, old PR, and the failure to adapt and embrace these tools are becoming fatal hurdles for many companies.

As the First Couple in Technology, we are deeply entrenched at the nexus of all this activity. We’re actively engaging companies of all sizes around the world to help you better spread the word about your good work. If you need help wading through the quagmire of unified communications and social media convergence, drop us a line or give us a call. We can help.

Sheryl – 360-918-2244 sheryl@stardustglobalventures.com
Ken – 360-464-7713 ken@stardustglobalventures.com

Technorati Tags: Sheryl Breuker, Ken Camp, Stardust Global Ventures, Realtimepublishers, unified communications, social media, consulting services