I was referring to consumer/prosumer type video editors, the ones on Bird's competitor grid in their recent presentation. Not the full-fat traditional suites (including Bird's sports/Olympic live editing suite), they aren't relevant. I just think it could be useful to encapsulate how different Elevate is, in a factual list rather than opinions. |
Last time I looked many video editing apps run to 1000 pages of instructions to use those features and multiple courses to go on then you add years of experience
Have too many features and it gets complicated and that’s not what we want.
We have Sumit to product manage elevate to hit the target market I have every confidence
Investors just need to let them get on with it.
All
Imho |
Chris
We will have to leave it in the capable hands of SS and Ian. |
Cyber
That would be seriously unhelpful |
 Whilst speculation about a potential bidder is understandable the likelihood would be that a bid by a big player would spark others, anxious to protect their own ongoing position. That presents the BoD and shareholders with difficult choices. After all if only months after a launch a bidder offers £10 would that not create the impression that in the longer term a much higher price could be achieved e.g. MSFT stock could once be bought for 8c and has risen since to more than $450.
There is also the position of SBS, IM and SR to consider. elevate.io is their baby and it would be normal for them to want control over how it develops. Would they stay under new owners and how would those owners feel if, for example, SBS decided to exploit his skills and deep knowledge to pursue patentable developments outside BIRD? He would know better than anyone how the existing software could be developed, how that could be achieved cost effectively and what patents would make life difficult for his competitors.
2025 could see interesting times. |
Is there an actual comprehensive list of all current video editors, along with a tick-list of all their features, and which ones are available at free, medium cost and high cost? There is a lot of discussion on this board about competitors and semi-competitors, but it would just be great to be able to see a single, simple, clear list! |
Exactly and same with YouTube and the money it was loosing serious people laughing at the price Google payed back then, now they are laughing at Elon Musk paying so much for Twitter
All about strategy but it has to hyper scale with the big boys |
John
Yes they are genuinely very ambitious and rightly so.
It will be fascinating to see when the realisation light bulb moment in the stock market happens but every shareholder holds tight imho |
Shortsqeezer
You think a few months of revenue growth will convince shareholders of a 2 Trillion $ company?
Whatever big tech pay they will multi X it
Video is incredibly valuable at scale and goes well beyond a monthly subscription calculation |
Remember that big tech companies have shareholders to keep happy. They need to convince them that purchasing another Company will pay off in the future. That's not so easy to do at this moment. Give it another six months or less, when income is flowing and projections easier to make then their job will be a lot easier even if it costs them more at that point |
I would also remind people of IM’s stated aim of building a company worth “tens of billions”, and no one else at that presentation so much as blinked.
Selling for £2billion, £4billion or even £6billion isn’t going to happen, at least not voluntarily.
We don’t know what the future holds, but someone, somewhere, holds the key.
I would imagine the wheels turn very slowly in any large potential purchaser of elevate.io. |
Hairflick
It doesn’t matter who is right both can be right
No one is saying we WILL be acquired but no one should say we won’t
Left alone we build the figma + of video |
Acquisition would probably take 6-12 months
Huge amount of work and wider strategy
It doesn’t happen overnight! |
Everyone is entitled to their opinion.
Some will be proven right, some will be proven wrong.
I have no idea which will be which but I know what I hope for. |
Bisho
You are wrong 😀 ‘it would have happened by now’
What has to take place is the Blackbird codec is perfected for scaling
The product architecture has to be developed and perfected to be able to function and hyper scale
This is the point we are now at we are just doing the finishing touches to a point of commercialisation.
Hence the window of acquisition is now open even a couple of months before payment gateway
A tremendous amount of technical testing and analysis has to be done by both sides, it has to work and the numbers have to work.
The payment gateway or the lead up to it is a point in the timeline that for the first time ever the ip can be passed to a large company who can take BIG advantage
That’s the power of a large company
Our power is IP and product development
As a simple example
If elevate passed to Adobe
Elevate goes from 10k + subscribers to 30 million over night
Big tech even greater
However once we start growing it would be crazy to accept any offers if our ambition is Canva figma growth curve
So we are approaching the optimal acquisition time of transfer of ip/product to another company to scale for BOTH SIDES us and big tech.
That’s not the same thing as me saying it will happen it’s just technically it’s the optimal point in time. |
bisho4
I think all we can all say is what we think is logical.
I agree that to you, and infact to me, it would seem logical for an interested company to move as soon as possible. However, I have no experience of working in a big tech company so I have no idea what their decision making process is and how long their decision making process is. Maybe there have been discussions which may or may not lead somewhere.
I expect that individuals in a big tech company may be reluctant to rush at anything as that might damage their reputation if they judge it wrong.
As you say, a big tech company may be building their own "good enough product" but why build a product that is less than elevate when they could try to acquire top of the range cloud native elevate.
If one big tech company did develop their own video platform, then that might put pressure on other companies to go for elevate.
There is no certainty about takeovers in the next 12 months. In the meantime, it will remain an unanswered question, and we will continue to press ahead and do the best we can as an independent company. |
@salmon9, the resistance being shown to my viewpoint suggests that people are disputing my theory that BIRD won't be bought out. See nickb's post just before yours. It seems inconceivable to him that it won't happen. |
I'm not saying we can't, I'm saying we won't.
If we were going to be bought out, it would have happened already.
It doesn't make any sense for Big Tech to wait for the payment gateway to be switched on to know what BIRD can do.
Big Tech already know what BIRD have, and what it will be capable of, and how Big Tech would expand it (and incorporate it into their own offerings) if they bought it.
There is literally no reason to wait several more months if they want to buy it.
Buying it now would eliminate the possibility of a rival buying it. It would reduce the possibility of a bidding war. It would be cheaper to buy it now for, e.g. £2bn, than £4bn in 18 months' time. Or £20bn in 4 years' time.
Buying it now would mean the next few months of development and optimisation could take place under the buyer's guidance and direction, tailored for and integrated into their own software/products/systems rather than having to reconfigure things afterwards.
Buying it now would give the buyer a headstart on commercialisation and pricing plans, offering deals & packages to existing customers.
There is no reason to wait 6-12 months to buy BIRD if they know they want it.
One final alternative, that cannot be discounted, is that BigTech is developing their own in-house alternative, that will be good enough jot to require spending billions on BIRD, thus making BIRD the Betamax of cloud video editing. |
bisho4
I don't think anyone is saying that as you put it: "........ the seemingly undisputable premise that BIRD will be bought out (a) before launch, or (b) shortly after launch."
I think the view with some people is that being taken over is a real possibility due to the performance quality and advantages of elevate, and the fact that video is becoming so important. However, of course it may not happen, in which case elevate will continue to grow what should be a very profitable business, just as Canva and Figma have done.
At the end of the day, it will depend on the appetite of a big player to increase their position with video by capitalising on the opportunity offered by elevate. |
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