The “stealthy” Zeugma Systems Inc. was first funded in 2004. Though it's been shy on details, we already know quite a bit about the firm, which looks to be building some sort of packet-aware broadband subscriber management system. (See Zeugma Gets $13.5M for Mystery Box.)
More specifically, it looks to be developing a platform with OAMP, broadband subscriber management, and next-generation application-aware service management software, according to information dug up from the company’s Website, recruitment ads, and patent applications.
Here’s what we like most about Zeugma: (1) the market – broadband subscriber management (it’s not shrinking any time soon); and (2) the people, all of which have a track record with successful products and companies.
Two of the company's top executives come from Siara Systems, the once red-hot company that was acquired by Redback Networks Inc. for $4.5 billion in November 1999, and eventually became the basis of Redback’s new generation of edge routing products (though Redback may have just slightly overpaid). Founder and CTO Siegfried Luft was a co-founder of Siara, where he and his team developed the first release of the SmartEdge 800, which has been a big part of Redback’s resurgence in the edge routing market. Marketing VP Tom Meehan served as director of product management at Siara.
Zeugma Founder and CEO Andrew Harries was a founder of wireless modem company Sierra Wireless Inc. (Nasdaq: SWIR; Toronto: SW), another successful company. He also spent several years with the Mobile Data Division of Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT), where he worked on strategic planning and developed new portable devices. Engineering VP Jeff Dillabough comes from PMC-Sierra Inc. (Nasdaq: PMCS) where he was director of product development.
What’s the only warning sign? The pretentious name. “Zeugma,” you see, refers to an ancient Mesopotamian city at the site of a bridge uniting the banks of the Euphrates River. The name derives from the Greek word meaning "a yoke.” We hope it’s all not some sort of bad yoke.
Can somebody explain to me where IPTV is successful? I keep seeing the last mile problem with DSL in the USA. Until the ISPs start delivering better guaranteed download speeds there is no way the current infrastructure could support IPTV in any quantity. If I have to buffer for 90 seconds every time I change the channel you can forget my business. Lack of content is a real problem also. Cable is moving to HD but IPTV is still putting out 320x240. I think the marketing people are too busy trying to beat the competition with better hype and not paying enough attention to reality. Or this is all for the Asia/Europe market and our ISP offerings have fallen behind those of the rest of the world. Which is it?
Hmmm, is Vyatta's revenue model to charge fees for fixes, updates/upgrades, extensions and support? License fees for 'beans?' (as in Java) Will they build/license APIs?
Would be nice to have software that can run on various platforms. But how would Vyatta test interoperability? Partner with Cisco, Juniper, Avaya...? Get friendly SPs to beta? Risky. If I were, say, Cisco, I wouldn't cooperate (yet). Build a router open-source consortium...?
"Compatibility" and "Efficiency" rear their heads.
I think that 9 out of 10 of these start ups are doomed to fail or be bailed-out at a loss to their initial investors. Throw a dart to pick the 1 that succeeds or delivers anything worthwhile. There. My ‘opinion’. OK?
That's the new buzzword I've heard for products like Slingbox.
SoonR looks like a mobile phone place-shifting product. I suppose if you had enough bandwidth and a tuner on your PC, you could use it to watch television on your phone.
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