Cornered!
Cornered! is a blog devoted, most of the time anyway, to telecommunications: local and global issues, technology, people and trends from the perspective of someone who's been reporting, analysing and commenting on the industry since the dark ages (BC - before competition). Sometimes serious, sometimes flippant, sometimes frivolous. Controversial, analytical, informative, amusing, but never boring; a vehicle for examinations of important issues and observations on my encounters and experiences in an industry where polarised views and hyperbole are the norm.
Follow the Australian Telecommunications scene NEWSLETTER- FREE TRIAL

Blog

Technology news and Jobs arrow Cornered! arrow Engin: We've blown $26m; we got it wrong, now give us $8.4m to keep afloat
Engin: We've blown $26m; we got it wrong, now give us $8.4m to keep afloat E-mail
by Stuart Corner   
Monday, 25 February 2008


Shortly afterwards it announced the appointment of seasoned UK marketing executive Matt Alexander to replace founding CEO Ilka Tales to drive its ambitious transition from VoIP to triple player. Alexander, however, never took on the job. A month later the company announced that he had backed out "due to personal circumstances".

Not that it was keen to make shareholders aware of this loss of a cornerstone of its ambitious transformation strategy: this information was buried in a statement to the ASX headed "Engin Team Changes" beneath the announcement of the departure of chairman Will Jephcott and of the departure from the board of founder and director Chris Shaw "due to the ongoing demands on his time from the expanding Direct Group that he controls."

Despite that little setback, shareholders could have been forgiven for thinking that things were going swimmingly as Engin proceeded to help Seven acquire Unwired and talk up synergies between the two businesses.

In his address to shareholders as late as 29 November 2007, the company's chairman was sounding upbeat claiming that "with appropriate funding your company is well poised to deliver on the exciting triple play strategy in market with substantial growth opportunities that can capitalise on Engin's leading position in the broadband telephony sector."

However it now appears that Engin was already well advanced with plans to largely abandon its triple play strategy, and must surely have known that a cash crunch was looming.

In a business update in January the company said a strategic review of the business had been undertaken in October and November 2007, and that an outcome of this had been to put on hold the company's ADSL2+ project and to relinquish its TiVo plans until its strategy to "provide a nearer-term path to profitability for the company's core telephony business" had been successful.

With prices for VoIP services continuing to fall and with ever more ISPs offering VoIP as part of their broadband service bundle investors might be waiting a long time.

Powered By Joomla Tags

Please enable JavaScript in your browser to post your comment!



 
< Next story in category   Previous story in the category >
iTWire user statistics Visitors last 30 days
694,279
Subscribers 15,210
#1 independent technology news advertise here
  •   *  
  • Search
  • AdvSeach
  • Login
  • Events
  • FreeStuff

- Advertisement -

Featured Whitepapers

Cornered! - Telecoms blog
Cornered! is a blog on all things tele-communication from the perspective of one who has observed, analysed commented and reported on the industry since the dark ages (BC - before competition).
Follow iTWire on Twitter

About iTWire

iTWire is all about technology news, information, jobs and community for the IT and telecommunications industry professional. Subscribe to our free ICT daily newsletter