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Talking Tech|Talking Tech, Thursday, April 19th Episode
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0.25 â Mark, Kevin and Duncan are back with a discussion of what were the Blackberryâs users doing during the down time this week?
1.55 â Duncan wonders if there is an architectural reason for the service going down and staying down. If the software and the system doesnât scale, how will this affect the stock price?
2.45 â Kevin wasnât affected by the outage, and still thinks a Blackberry is the most effective email device out there. Mark is curious to know if RIM needs to make a major investment in its architecture?
5.59 â BCE is now in play with private equity investors ready to spend up to $30bn on the company. Mark canât see the value for investors in a low growth company in competitive markets.
7.02 â Duncan thinks that the fact BCE hasnât grown is a reason for people to buy into the company. Cutting costs, slashing jobs and spinning off assets like Bell Mobility are all things that smart people are putting forward to extract value.
8.38 â Kevin thinks that no matter what happens, the situation is indicative of a lack of confidence in the management team.
9.07 â Duncan brings up another angle â John Henderson of Scotiabank is suggesting BCE take over Telus to form âBELUSâ â but doubts the current management team would be that aggressive.
9.51 â Mark wonders what Darren Entwistle would next do if that happened. Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg is a big fan of his so he could go south of the border as an SVP.
10.35 â Kevin doesnât think Telus wants to be taken over. The board is happy with the team and the company has just got over the hump of challenges that BCE is now facing.
11.12 â Could Michael Sabia have done anymore to improve the company in the eyes of the institutional investors? Kevin thinks that the company missed the boat on Microcell and that itâs slow on migrating to GSM networks.
12.56 â Duncan pushes back on Markâs assertion that thereâs no value to leverage out of BCE by pointing out that debt is no barrier to success. The prospect of being hanged in the morning is a great way to sharpen the mind.
13.37 â He uses Rogers as an example before revealing the secret to making money out of BCE and Telusâ (13.37)
14.14 - The guys move onto a lighter topic â the acquisition of StumbleUpon by eBay for $40m. Mark uses it as a way to rail against the Canadian VC market. As a former VC, Duncan has an interesting perspective.
15.11 â Mark admits that Canadian VCs such as the oneâs that funded b5media, Brightspark and JLA, are starting to get it and by investing in b5media, put a stake in the ground.
Audio or text comments for Mark, Kevin and Duncan can be emailed to heytalkingtech@gmail.com.
Our announcer is the lovely Amber Mac and the music is No Mojo by Anthony Stauffer and Holy Smoke which is available on the pod safe music network.
[ Thu, 19 Apr 2007 21:37:00 GMT ]
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