Assuming technology doesn't fail me I'm going to blog the VeriSign press conference discussing the company's intention intention to purchase the camera phone software company LightSurf Technologies (that I'm rather familiar with). As I wrote in the previous post, VeriSign is buying LightSurf for $270 million in VeriSign stock.
It begins at 5:30 p.m. EST. Updates will occur during the conference as I listen and post...
Press conference begins....
Instead of blogging live I listened. Basically, not much was said about exactly how VeriSign will help LightSurf create better software and services. Just about all the questions (I wanted to ask one but wasn't picked -- just financial analysts) -- dealt with the finances and competitors but didn't discuss the camera phones business.
LightSurf's head, Philippe Kahn, says his company will be able to benefit from VeriSign's international reach. LightSurf's has a few overseas customers but most are in North and South America.
Philippe says LightSurf was on track for an IPO but Goldman Sachs introduced the company to VeriSign, that has a worldwide presence to help LightSurf expand. Large corporations don't want to deal with more suppliers; they want to deal with fewer suppliers that offer more products.
In answer to questions about LightSurf competitors, Philippe said what he has told me on numerous occasions: LightSurf's main competition is the cellular operators' own internal development. Carriers purchase camera phone servers (MMSC) but run into trouble working with the servers. The multimedia messaging marketplace develops very quickly and is extremely complex.
Sometimes cellular operators call LightSurf to help them with the back office software development.
Philippe notes there are MMS standards, but all companies tweak their products a bit.
LightSurf has about 250 employees, of which about half are in Santa Cruz, Calif. and half in Bangalore, India. When the VeriSign puchases LightSurf, those employees will become VeriSign employees.
So, the press conference did not provide, unfortunately, information about how LightSurf will offer new products or services as a result of the VeriSign purchase.
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