Greed is Good

Last night I attended a MassNetComms gathering of 100+ people, hosted at Battery Ventures, which included a panel of investors offering perspective on wireless, networking and telecom opportunities. John Dix, editor-in-chief of Network World, hosted a lively, optimistic discussion that kept coming back to mobility and video. In particular, challenges to be tackled, according to this group, are monetization of content; getting content from our computers to our TVs; and watching the smaller video players (e.g. Joost) figure out ways to get access to more content so that they can effectively compete with the big cable and service providers. These themes are pretty consistent with what we are seeing from our clients that play in the video and content arena, and the media and analysts who are writing about the space.

On the state of the IPO market (or lack thereof) an amusing yet hopeful quote was offered, "Fear is temporary. Greed is eternal." God bless Gordon Gekko.

Dix closed the discussion with two statements he asked the panelists to complete:

Bill Gates comes out of retirement to do what?  Answers ranged from,"take over as CEO of Apple" to "appear in Dancing with the Stars as JLo's partner, doing a spirited rendition of the tango."

Facebook becomes profitable by...?  Answers ranged from "It's not going to happen" to "It sells to Martha Stewart and is renamed Lacebook."

Clearly at this point the group was ready for the beer and barbeque that was waiting outside. However, if you would like to play the game and complete either or both of these statements, please give us your best shot.