Blackbird Share Discussion Threads

[nickb] 27/2/2024 19:43:27

Salmon

Yes great relationship/ partner with Microsoft who also run Adobe Cloud on Microsoft Azure which is interesting

[nickb] 27/2/2024 19:39:45

Pat
Good luck with your investment then, what a mess after all these years ☹️

[salmon9] 27/2/2024 19:21:24

Anyone interested in a reminder about details of the working relationship between Blackbird and Microsoft would find lots of useful detail in the Microsoft magazine Technology Record issue number 25 dates summer 2022.



Pages 143-144 An article by Mike Beach in which he mentions Blackbird.

Page 148 A piece written by Ian McDonough
" “Microsoft technologies enable Blackbird’s core
attributes and unique selling points to be utilised to
the full. Namely to deliver very fast, intuitive, light,
sustainable and highly efficient editing of live or
file-based content in a web browser. For example,
Deltatre uses Blackbird and Azure Media Services
for access to high-profile National Football League
(NFL) streams that scale on event load. Azure Media
Encoder is then used for video-on-demand (VOD)
asset publishing. Another example is a global
sporting body who use Blackbird to rapidly access
and repurpose very high-resolution archive assets
in blob storage for VOD delivery. The alternative
to Blackbird workflows is to spin up a traditional
non-linear editing system with associated expensive,
power-hungry infrastructure. Blackbird and
Microsoft have made previously inconcievable cloud
workflows possible.“

Pages 150-151 An article written by Ian in which he expands on the working relationship with Microsoft and finishes by saying:
"“Our partnership with Microsoft is stronger
than ever, and we’re tremendously excited to
continue working closely together to provide the
industry’s most efficient and innovative cloud
video solutions.”

So that was how things were 18 months ago .......

[pat_cash] 27/2/2024 19:21:07

Nick - better to address these concerns to the company then, as that's what they've said they're doing. No point moaning here.

Some investors think we will be acquired before launch, otherwise we won't be acquired and are doomed.

Others think we're far more likely to be acquired after launch and in the meantime can rapidly grow a viable business, including partnering or licensing with big players, and that this in itself makes us more likely to be acquired or achieve a massive market cap.

The first is a pretty dreadful investment outlook imho. And unrealistic.

[nickb] 27/2/2024 19:06:57

Pat

Chill? You are painting a terrible investment picture as far as I’m concerned.

Creators are signed up to

Adobe Canva

Give me a Canva partnership then fine I’m happy
Adobe unlikely to partner

Microsoft Google Amazon or X would be interesting
Particularly The Player!

The rest shows we are just another product company, nothing special

[geheimnis2] 27/2/2024 17:50:53

MSOFT own LinkedIn - which would be a great partner

BIRD have been on a couple of panels with LI

[salmon9] 27/2/2024 17:21:24

Microsoft have complemented Blackbird for years for their advanced cloud native technology, and have showcased Blackbird as cutting edge, on their booth at a number of major shows. Why would they want to let another company walk off with this prize, unless they think it isn't the correct fit for their future direction.

[sideshowbull] 27/2/2024 17:19:46

I still say give me a G

No advice

BWTFDIK

[pat_cash] 27/2/2024 17:18:38

Shortsqueezer - it could certainly be one of the partnerships!

[shortsqueezer] 27/2/2024 17:13:27

I still think we have some sort of agreement with Microsoft. We have shared stands at trade shows etc with them on many occasions. What would it cost them and benefit us if elevate was to be included on their next windows upgrade? 345 million subscribers would not need to pay much more to get this option included but it would be a revelation for us

[pat_cash] 27/2/2024 17:10:47

NickB - chill out. "Partner" or "Partnership" in this context is just a term for an advertising agreement with a third party. They don't have any control over your product. And they don't decimate a super high gross margin.

[nickb] 27/2/2024 17:08:58

SSB
Well that’s what we were sold by our directors!

[sideshowbull] 27/2/2024 17:04:44

Agree no backwards steps bigger steps up the chain. "Land and expand".

BWTFDIK

[nickb] 27/2/2024 16:57:48

Yes great for ambling along like a little AIM business during a video AI revolution!

Partner with
Canva
Google
Microsoft
Or X

Okay

[cyberbub] 27/2/2024 16:53:55

Partnerships bring in lower but reliable and much less risky profits....

[nickb] 27/2/2024 16:49:21

Partnerships

Decimates margin and less control
Sounds awful and not what I invested here for, incredible lack of ambition for the technology.

Stringer

God help us if it’s them!

[salmon9] 27/2/2024 16:30:46

Very clear pat cash. Thank you for that.

[pat_cash] 27/2/2024 16:12:59

In response to Nick2412 – as you can imagine, I was keen to ask the question as it’s a good way to quickly grow on a limited budget, with low/no risk (only pay commission if/when revenue comes in), and the work to set it up can be done well ahead of launch. And you can leverage someone else’s very relevant audience.

In comparison, PPC (pay per click) advertising entails up front cost, lower conversion and is harder to target...and takes much experimentation. Even if you’re paying a 30% commission to partners, it’s probably a lower cost of acquisition than PPC, and the subs probably have a lower churn rate as they’re more targeted and the partner may continue to advertise the relationship to them. So I’m not bothered to have not seen any advertising of elevate.io yet...I'm actually pleased!

I’ve mentioned before, and it’s pure speculation, but someone like Stringr.com would make a good partner, as they have 120k+ videographers in their network.

Partnerships would be quicker to get paying subs in in the early days, raise the share price, and allow them to do a subsequent raise to rapidly expand. Acquisition can come anytime along the way.

[nickb] 27/2/2024 15:54:02

At the end of the day if the tech is any good we will be acquired if not we will have to do the best we can with partners and hope they deliver this time.

Our OEM partners failed

[johnveals] 27/2/2024 15:50:42

'I would suggest that we simply don't know which of these will happen, but we can piece together seemingly relevant evidence that we observe, which may or may not suggest some of the above are still theoretically possible. IMHO' salmon9

Can't argue with that.

The silence is deafening and there certainly are some great theories...

[nickb] 27/2/2024 15:48:08

Mo looked at partnering with Blackbird while at Vegas so not unreasonable.

But partnerships come at a big price

[nick2412] 27/2/2024 15:42:51

and this...



pat_cash - 21 Jan 2024 - 19:51:48 - 12788 of 13008

I asked at the AGM Apr 23 Q&A if the company has onboarded organisations with big, relevant users bases that Bird would partner with to market the product in return for a revenue share and the resounding answer from Mo Volans was Yes!. I actually asked it to Sumit Rai and he pointed out Mo was itching to answer! So I believe they use this route to gain the majority of their initial paying subs this is good as there is only marketing cost outflow if subs are successfully acquired, and presumably the payout isn't upfront, but rather phased as the revenue comes in - both good and low risk given limited marketing resources.