Posted on
April 17th, 2012 by
David
With the 2012 election cycle heating up, more and more voters will be hearing about lobbyists and corporate influence in Washington, D.C. Every industry has lobbyists, including the technology sector. Few companies, however, keep their lobbyists in prominent positions. Comcast Corporation, the nation’s largest cable, communications and entertainment company, keeps their principle lobbyist as one of their corporate executives! Her name is Melissa Maxfield.
Melissa Maxfield’s official title is Senior Vice President of Federal Government Affairs for Comcast. Comcast, as a large communications company, has a keen interest in legislation involving copyright protection, Internet distribution and manufacturing relationships with subcontractors in foreign countries. In order to ensure that Comcast’s interests are respected and existing laws are enforced, Melissa Maxfield spends much of her time for Comcast in Washington, D.C.
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Posted on
April 16th, 2012 by
David
There are few Internet sites where the sole, unabashed purpose of the site is to make money. For sure, virtually every business on the Internet is there to try to make money, but most try to offer customers a product or service or otherwise disguise the fact that they are making money off your visiting their site. Many websites take an approach similar to Facebook, where they focus on the experience of the site, as opposed to how the company will make money off it. At the other end of the spectrum is Joseph Einhorn. Read more »
Posted on
April 15th, 2012 by
David
Because the advertising for some of the big telecommunications companies is so prevalent, one might think that it was one of the giants of telecommunications that developed and founded the first 4G network. As it turns out, though, it was not Verizon or AT&T or another nationwide mobile phone network that created the first 4G network in the United States. No, that honor goes to a little company called Clearwire. Clearwire could not have developed and initiated their 4G network had it not been for Hope F. Cochran.
Hope Cochran is the Chief Financial Officer of Clearwire Corporation. Cochran joined Clearwire in 2005 and she was instrumental in seeing the company through its initial public offering of stock. That IPO raised $11.5 billion and funded the establishment of the Clearwire 4G network. Without Cochran’s savvy and business acumen, Clearwire would not have been able to establish the 4G network and show the companies in Big Telecom how it was done!
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Posted on
April 14th, 2012 by
David
With the death of Steve Jobs and movies that focus on how Mark Zuckerberg and his friends created Facebook, many in the media are focused on looking out for the next tech sector wunderkind. With so many of the current crop of rising stars in the tech sector focused solely on their Internet startups or technological breakthroughs, it is easy to forget that historically, the real geniuses of the tech sector have been well-rounded individuals with a lot of interests. The fact that these creative geniuses who are interested in many things focus on the technology industry to leave their mark does not negate the fact that the inventors, CEOs and envelope-pushers of the tech sector all had more going for them than simply their career. That is why Martin Kleppmann is the Internet entrepreneur to watch! Read more »
Posted on
April 13th, 2012 by
David
With so many changes coming to the tech sector and the distribution of media, it is understandable that evaluating those changes has often been difficult to assess. While television has mechanisms built in, like the Neilsen Corporation’s statistical analysis, how can industry leaders determine if you are watching their program from your smartphone or tablet computer? When users stream videos from the Cloud is not as easy to chart the impact of your programming. At least, it was not easy to chart before Deb Roy set his mind to the issue!
Deb Roy saw the way social networking was changing the landscape of communication at the same time as technology was advancing to provide users with more instantaneous shared experiences. Deeply interested in the relationship between the distribution of media and news through technology, Deb Roy began an ambitious project to collect the statistics that would inform him – and others – as to the actual effect of the technological changes. That was when he and Michael Fleischman founded Bluefin Labs. Read more »
Posted on
April 12th, 2012 by
David
In the tech sector, there are many important companies whose influence is not felt as widely in the United States as it is in other parts of the world. One company that is still gaining footing in the United States is Archos. Archos has a significant market share in the consumer electronics market in Europe, especially France. Archos produces its own line of portable audio and video players, tablet computers and netbooks. The man who pioneers the various technologies for Archos is Yves Gregoire and he is an impressive engineer! Read more »
Posted on
April 11th, 2012 by
David
Virtually everyone in business knows that discovery and invention are the keys to future success. Ironically, while most businesspeople know that invention is critical to the future of any company’s long-term health, very few businesses reinvest as radically as they need to in research and development. The profession of “inventor” is all but dead in the United States. Intellectual Ventures is one of the few companies that are investing heavily in revitalizing the American spirit of invention. No one is more committed to the importance of investing in shaping the future than Intellectual Ventures’ President and Chief Operating Officer, Adriane Brown. Read more »
Posted on
April 10th, 2012 by
David
The diverse and specialized markets within the technology sector change with alarming frequency. With the demands that come with operating within quickly-changing field, it is almost surprising just how many strategies there are for a business to survive. While some tech sector businesses invest heavily in research and development in order to survive the erratic fluctuations of the market, others make frequent incremental updates to their product line to continue to inspire consumers to spend. Voxx International has managed to survive the turbulent technology market by buying its competitors. That is a strategy developed by Patrick M. Lavelle. Read more »
Posted on
April 9th, 2012 by
David
The first big threat to traditional advertising models on television came from the development of cable tv. Advertisers liked it even less when premium cable channels like HBO, Cinemax and Showtime offered viewers both original programing and advertisement-free television viewing at a price customers appeared willing to pay. As advertisers struggle with how to monetize streaming television technology, HBO is working to adapt to the digital transmission framework. For that, they have Alison Moore.
Alison Moore is the Senior Vice President of Digital Platforms for HBO. In that role, Moore is responsible for all aspects of HBOs online and streaming presence. It is her job to oversee the creation of a viable online subscription service for HBO, especially marketing its original content on the Internet. Her responsibilities also include promoting and positioning the HBO digital services to compete with established streaming services like Netflix and Blockbuster Online.
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Posted on
April 8th, 2012 by
David
It is a rare thing for a company to have a loyal worker who has risen through the ranks of the established corporate structure only to redefine the company when they get to the top. Far more often, those who start low on the corporate ladder and work their way up become concerned with preserving the corporate identity of the organization of which they have been a part. But more often than not in the rapidly changing tech sector, survival in business requires flexibility. The companies in the technology industry that cling to rigidly to a set corporate structure, product line or idea often find themselves hemorrhaging capital when the market changes abruptly. Belkin was in danger of suffering that type of horrible corporate downturn when Mark Reynoso turned the company around!
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