分析:Ooyala一文不值吗?

Stating that he “believe(s) it is appropriate to impair all of the goodwill associated with the business,澳大利亚电信的斯蒂芬·埃洛普说宣布 last week his company is taking a $273 million Australian Dollar (AUD) impairment (or, in U.S. 条款, (减记2.14亿美元), which operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Australian telecommunications giant.

Elop’s announcement comes less than two years after Telstra CEO Andy 潘宣布 its 第一个减记 against Ooyala’s valuation, a staggering-at-the-time $246 million AUD impairment.

The purchase price for Ooyala was approximately $380 million AUD ($331 million USD), 基于这些年的几次投资, including a 23% 投资 stake for approximately $68 million AUD ($61 million USD) between 2012-2014, 2014年8月投资 of approximately $300 million AUD ($270 million USD) to net Telstra a total 98% ownership stake in Ooyala. That last 投资 was based on a 5x revenue valuation at the time.

换句话说，从财务角度来看，Ooyala一文不值. That’s a hard fall for a scrappy startup with Google alumni as founders that had touted its analytics platforms at a number of 流媒体 shows, and also the one that Telstra had declared would be “bigger than YouTube” in 2014.

Telstra claims that the true value it has to write down against Ooyala is much higher than the purchase price. 结合, the two Telstra impairments over the past two years add up to approximately $519 million AUD.

这种延长的减值可能是应该的, 在某种程度上, to additional acquisitions and financial shoring up of Ooyala at the time of purchase. One such acquisition occurred just two months after Telstra acquired Ooyala, with Ooyala in turn 采购Videoplaza, allowing Ooyala to rapidly get into the video advertising game.

潘, Ooyala被收购时，Telstra的首席财务官是谁, hired Elop in April 2016 to serve both as Ooyala’s chairman and also as Telstra’s Group executive of technology, 创新, 和策略.

如果埃洛普的名字听起来很熟悉, 你可能还记得他早年在Adobe和微软的时候, 或是后来在诺基亚工作的经历, where he served as the first non-Finnish CEO of the once-great handset maker. 微软于2013年收购了诺基亚, 让埃洛普重返微软, where he then served as an executive vice president of Microsoft’s devices group, 将诺基亚整合到Windows Phone平台. 在2013-2015年期间, Elop was rumored to be in line to replace Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. However, in April 2015, after Satya Nadella succeeded Ballmer, Elop left Microsoft.

Ooyala还有什么，更重要的是Telstra? 在最近的减值公告中, Elop noted that Ooyala has two more key components beyond the advertising technology that was specifically noted in the impairment announcement.

“Ad tech has not performed well and we will therefore seek ways to exit that part of the business,埃洛普说。. “Importantly we do see a future in the other core parts of the Ooyala business—video player and the workflow management system.”

“新的Ooyala管理团队正在取得积极进展,埃洛普说。, noting that improvements could come “through improved booking trends, 产品质量, 减少客户流失.”

解决基本问题将是关键, but Ooyala has seemed to have trouble with even those things in recent years.

2016年8月21日， 金融评论 文章标题为澳大利亚电信是如何搞砸了第一笔硅谷交易的?” the responsiveness of other online video platform (OVPs) in the Asia Pacific (APAC) and Australian markets was praised and Ooyala’s failure to respond in a timely manner was panned.

“Brightcove promised to respond to any glitches within two hours,文章指出。, citing an interview with Fairfax Media video manager David McMillan. “在紧急情况下，会有人立即提供帮助. Its competitor, Ooyala, which was owned by Telstra, wasn't so reliable. Emails sent to its Silicon Valley headquarters wouldn't be returned for days, if at all.”

在同一篇文章中, 在宣布2.46亿澳元减值后, 潘 noted that “Ooyala's video business isn't succeeding and it is switching to a different way of making money.”

显然，这种方法也行不通, which is more than a shame: Telstra’s dominance in the Australian market, coupled with Ooyala’s foresight to enter the APAC market early on—at a time when many other online video platforms (OVPs) were focused on North American and European customers—gave the Telstra-Ooyala combination a seemingly invincible one-two combination.

或者这只是一记重拳. 不管, 它可能会再次呼吁澳大利亚电信更换新的首席执行官, a question first raised in in an August 2017 Sydney Morning Herald 文章标题为$28.在首席执行官安迪•佩恩(Andy 潘)的领导下，澳大利亚电信价值蒸发了50亿美元.”

“是时候寻找一位新领导人了吗??文章问道。. “价值损失是巨大的, and yes Telstra's future on a margin-shredding NBN network is partly to blame, 但只是部分原因.”