While thePlatform has acted independently as a subsidiary of Comcast for more than seven years, times they are a changin'.
Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) has acknowledged that thePlatform Inc. is now under the management of Comcast Wholesale. And as a result of the move, Marty Roberts, co-CEO of thePlatform, has left the company. The other co-CEO, Jamie Miller, is now reporting to Matt McConnell, senior vice president of Comcast Wholesale.
Here is the statement provided by thePlatform to Light Reading:
"In mid-2015, thePlatform aligned with Comcast Wholesale to build market-leading products to serve the worldwide video industry. After early successes with customers it became clear that an even tighter alignment across the two organizations would allow for a more rapid expansion and optimization of the combined portfolios to meet the ever-expanding needs of customers.
"The leadership team recognized the need to have a central point of leadership at thePlatform, and a common vision, to support a tighter alignment of the organization and build forward-thinking technology products.
"As such, thePlatform will continue to be aligned under Matt McConnell, senior vice president and general manager of Comcast Wholesale. Jamie Miller will continue to report to Matt and be responsible for thePlatform. Marty Roberts, who previously served as co-CEO of thePlatform, will be leaving the company."
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Comcast Wholesale has undergone major changes of late, beefing up its services for video processing and delivery in order to compete with old rivals like Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) and relative newcomers to the video industry like Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN). Most recently, Comcast Wholesale launched a content delivery network service as part of its portfolio of offerings. Barry Tishgart, VP of IP services for Comcast Wholesale, explained to Light Reading that he believes his company is well-integrated from a video workflow perspective, with services for content ingest, management, processing and delivery. (See Comcast Debuts CDN as Video Eats the World.)
Given the latest corporate restructuring, it's clear that thePlatform -- or what once was thePlatform -- is playing a vital role in that integration.
— Mari Silbey, Senior Editor, Cable/Video, Light Reading