Huge growth for online video advertising...

The success story in the sector last year was the still-nascent online video advertising market, which grew by 140% year on year to £28.3m.

"In 2009 the advertising industry was hard hit but online proved itself a winning medium, capturing a greater share of marketing budgets," said the chief executive, IAB Guy Phillipson. "In the past year we have seen some real success stories as search passed the £2bn mark and online video advertising experienced spectacular growth."

from The Guardian

--------

The actual headline of the article is "Facebook lifts UK digital display revenue". Hmm - yet another story about the growth and success of Facebook. Anyone would think Blinkx should have a Facebook app/widget, or something...

The positive view...

I'm often accused of being relentlessly negative on Blinkx - if I am, it's because the company doesn't give shareholders much, if anything, to be positive about.

So to balance the books a little I thought I'd post this, from 'jarvis' over on the ADVFN thread:

"If you are expecting to compare Blnx with the likes of Facebook or similar you are missing the point. Blnx is stitching itself into many partners to provide their search facility. Clearest example is BBC IPlayer - you use that but there's no clue that the search is run by Blnx. The nearest similie I can think of is having the same starter motor supplied to every car manufacturer in the world - but Blnx will dwarf even that. All the Analyst's projections are based on the IPO documents and therefore miss the complete change of direction taken by Blnx in setting up Pinball with all it's cash producing facets. Talk about a body swerve - missed by the market completely. I fully expect Blnx to have been cash neutral/positive since the turn of the calendar year. We are now into an upturn and with our high CPM rates, increased partners and hours I am expecting impressive EOY figures. Do I get frustrated by the ground down SP? You bet! Am I annoyed that BLNX choose to get on with the job and leave their shareholders to stew? Too true! That said, do I believe in the business? Absolutely! Will I be selling any shares? Not a snowballs! Might Blnx only reveal part of the picture in May? Yes. Might we have another truly frustrating 12 months? Quite possibly.

For me this is a share to hold onto at all costs as the whole landscape of TV, media, phones, pads etc opens up and needs personally driven and targeted search. This share has the potential to be a personal or family"

I'm not aware that anyone was comparing Blinxk to Facebook? Questioning why Blinkx doesn't have a Facebook app, yes.

And of course we'd all love the above to be true, and for us all to be able to retire in 3-5 years time with our pockets stuffed with cash.

However there are a few awkward questions to be answered first:

1/ Mgmt doesn't seem terribly competent. First there was the Miva fuck-up, which showed that they didn't have a clue how to handle a takeover, then there was the Blinkbox fiasco, which showed that not only did they not have an idea about growing the Blinkx brand (we knew that already), but they couldn't even protect the brand and IP they have.

2/ "the whole landscape of TV, media, phones, pads etc opens up" - very true. Yahoo TV, the iPad, Google TV upcoming - with none of which (as far as we are aware) are Blinkx involved.

3/ If Jarvis is right and Blinkx is set to be absolutely massive in, say, 5 years' time, why aren't the mgmt madly buying shares at these 'giveaway' prices? Why is it that what they SAY is so diametrically opposed to what they DO? None of the Blinkx fanboys can even hazard a guess as to that one...

And if the above is an accurate view, why the secrecy and paranoia from Blinkx mgmt? With Mike Lynch/Autonomy holding just over 20% the chances of a hostile takeover of Blinkx are (sadly) about nil, so why continually hide their light under a bushel? Maybe they've got something to hide. Or even worse, maybe they've got nothing to hide...

The results better be good...

This from 'jarvis' on ADVFN...

"jarvis4 - 30 Mar'10 - 09:53 - 18190 of 18192

If past form is anything to go by we will get a surprise FX loss, yet another surprise placing and the share price will drop by another 40% whilst Suranga will go round the world picking up meaningless awards and announcing himself "thrilled".

Oh yes, and once all the small shareholders have been ground out rabbits will be pulled from hats and the sp will rocket. Cynical, me? Surely not!"

Follow-up to the FSA

The Market Conduct Team,

The Financial Services Authority,

25 The North Colonnade,

Canary Wharf,

London E14 5HS

27^th March 2010

Re: Blinkx

Your ref: *****

Dear Sir

I wrote to the FSA back in November 2009 about the conduct of the management of Blinkx, and a member of the Market Conduct Team was kind enough to reply to me (the above ref).

I’m afraid I have cause to write again about the conduct if the Blinkx management team as I believe they are in breach of their duties to shareholders. It is my understanding that the directors of a listed company are obliged to inform shareholders of any events which will impact the company’s financial position, whether positively or negatively, and I believe Blinkx are failing to do so.

In April 2009 Blinkx acquired a company called Zango. Despite repeated requests from shareholders the company refused to release any details of the terms of the deal done, claiming that the amount involved was small enough not to make disclosure compulsory. They may or may not have been entitled to withhold this information – I am not an expert.

However since the acquisition Blinkx has hired many ex-Zango employees – possibly as many as 50 (this number is judged from a variety of sources such as LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media sources), very nearly doubling the size of Blinkx (which had 60 employees before the Zango deal).

My question – which I have put to Blinkx but to which I have received to reply – is how a company can nearly double its employees without that impacting on the company’s financial position? As such I believe shareholders should have been notified of why this very large number of employees were being hired (relative to the number of staff pre-acquisition), and the risks and hoped-for benefits of that action. I believe shareholders have a right to that information.

I would urge the FSA to investigate what seems to me a very clear-cut failure. As a small investor I have welcomes the FSA’s actions in recent weeks to tackle market abuses, but I think many companies also need reminding of their obligations to investors. I can’t think of a better place to start than with Blinkx.

Yours faithfully,

Blinkx share price in freefall...

The Blinkx share price closed down a penny. Looks to be heading sub-10p again.

Certainly not what one would expect from "the world’s largest and most advanced video search engine".

Economic climate notwithstanding, with competent management, good communication and good newsflow this should be over £1 by now.

There's something rotten in Denmark.

Time for new management...

New TiVo Mixes TV and Internet, but Falls Short

TiVo is the most famous third-party set-top box for your TV. The company popularized the idea of digital video recording and, in recent years, also has added to its devices the ability to deliver some Internet video content to the TV screen.

But TiVo is being squeezed. Cable and satellite companies now offer boxes with DVR capabilities. And other tech companies are rolling out competing set-top boxes to get Internet video to televisions...

from Personal Technology

Here's How Google TV Will Work - And What It Might Mean

Wednesday, March 24, 2010, 09:45 AM ET

posted by: Will Richmond

Last week, the NY Times shared some details of "Google TV," the new set-top box Google is developing in partnership with Intel and Sony. The article provided a good outline, and now, based on additional information I've gathered, I'm able to provide new details on the box and also explain what it might mean.

The first and most important thing to know about Google TV is that it is not being positioned to induce users to "cut the cord" on their subscriptions to existing multichannel video programming distributors' ("MVPDs" like cable, satellite or telco) services. Or at least that's Google's initial positioning; whether it's genuine or really just a Trojan Horse game plan is another whole matter. For now anyway, Google is taking a "friend of the industry" approach, telling MVPDs that it's briefing that it is looking to complement their businesses by bringing the full Internet to the TV (this follows the same convergence theme as the new Kylo browser).

Google is contemplating an entirely novel strategy for its set-top box, seeking to insert it alongside the existing MVPD's set-top box by daisy chaining them together via HDMI connections. In other words, the MVPD's set-top's HDMI output would be connected to the Google TV set-top's HDMI input, and then its HDMI output would be connected to the TV. The authorized TV channels would still be delivered, but Google TV would collect data from the MVPD's set-top and introduce an entirely new UI for users to control their TV experience, to include searching and browsing channels. It would also add a host of new interactive web-type capabilities around the content...

from VideoNuze

Smartphone Usage Spikes: Up 193 Percent Year-Over-Year

Smartphone traffic in February 2010 was up 193 percent over February 2009. So says mobile advertising network AdMob, which released its latest monthly Mobile Metrics Report (PDF) today.

The headline, obviously, is that smartphone usage is spiking. But there are a few other data points worth noting as well. Mobile Internet devices like the iPod touch and Nintendo DSi have seen a fourfold jump in use. Their traffic share grew 17 percent from about seven percent...

from Digital Daily

------------

And still no iPhone app from Blinkx. Or Facebook widget come to that. Kind of makes you wonder which planet Blinkx management are living on...

'Onwards and upwards'? laughably delusional...

The Blinxk price down .5p on my screen as I write. So much for the 'onwards and upwards' predicted by digitalis on the ADVFN bulletin board thread a few days ago.

But then again, this is the guy who has consistently predicted a share price of £2 a share for Blinxk by spring 2011. Not sure where he got that figure from - probably dreamed it up one night after a few too many cans of Diamond White...

To get to £2 a share by spring 2011 (say April 2011, so 13 months) Blinkx would need to add more than its current share price every month between now and then. In my view there is not the remotest chance of that happening.

I deal in fact, not fantasy. And although Blinkx seems to be doubling revenues every six months or so, there are huge questions around the company's progress, around the control of costs, around the impact (positive or negative) of the Zango acquisition (about which shareholders have still, to date, been told absolutely jackshit) and around the competence of senior staff. Until those questions are resolved there's only one way the share price is going - and it's not towards £2 a share...

The delusionistas are out in force tonight...

Talking about today's RNS, 'digitalis' over on the ADVFN Blinkx threads posted:

"digitalis - 24 Mar'10 - 17:17 - 17915 of 17917

it explains the rushed round table meeting also!......bulk came to market,SC had to find buyers...quick...or we could have had a pasting.....

onwards and upwards!............."

digitalis is renowned for being a blinkered, uncritical supporter of Blinkx management, but this is delusional even by his standards...

".or we could have had a pasting....."

I'm not sure what digitalis would call the current share price if not a 'pasting'? The share price can't even currently hold anywhere near the placing price of 18p, and that was only a few months ago!

"onwards and upwards!.."

Is it worth pointing out that the price dropped .75p today? The trend is down, not up!!! You'd really have to be delusional - or drunk - to think that the two most recent RNSs are anything like good news...

Question: why did Autonomy take up more than 50% of the share placing? Did they want those shares, or did they get lumbered with them because they had underwritten the issue and nobody else wanted them?

Observation: Chandratillake gave a 'fireside chat' to the great vampire squid Goldman Sachs only a few short weeks ago and it has, apparently, to date had no effect whatsoever on the share price. Unless of course Goldman Sachs, sensing desperation on the part of Blinkx's CEO to try and pump his company, have been doing the opposite and shorting it since the presentation...

Observation: Blinkx hosts a meeting of sell-side analysts. Once again, it seems to have no impact whatsoever on the City's interest in Blinkx or the City's willingness to buy into the company.

Question: are the previous points connected? Does Blinkx, in fact, have a CEO who cannot sell the company story, who blew his credibility long ago over the Miva fiasco and just shot himself in the foot again with the Blinkbox cock-up? Has he - through his persistent failure to buy any shares in his own company in the open market and a persistent unwillingness or inability to communicate with shareholders and investors - totally destroyed his credibility in the eyes of the City and many (most?) shareholders?

And once again: if I'm wrong in asking those questions, where is the proof I'm wrong? Because the only proof I see, the only hard evidence, is the share price, and it isn't good...

Given the circumstances...

IE two major investors selling significant portions of their stakes WITHIN A WEEK, I think Blinkx should - as a matter of urgency - issue a full trading update to reassure remaining shareholders and investors that the company is still on track.

Except of course that they won't - it's the secrecy-bordering-paranoia which has got Blinxk to where it is now, with a tanked share price and complete indifference from the markets.

And if the figures in May show that in fact the company isn't on track - if, for example, the anticipated upturn in revenues hasn't materialised due to fears of a double-dip recession, and as a result all those extra ex-Zango staff have not, in fact, paid for themselves - then I for one will expect to see Chandratillake's letter of resignation along with the results. Because if, in such circumstances, he doesn't resign, anything he says in the future would be drowned out by the baying mob calling for his head on a stick...

The stampeded for the exits continues - what the F**K is going on?

Blinkx Plc

Holding(s) in Company

RNS Number : 1387J

Blinkx Plc

24 March 2010



TR-1: Notifications of Major Interests in Shares

1. Identity of the issuer or the underlying issuer of existing shares to which voting rights are attached:		Blinkx Plc
2. Reason for notification (yes/no)
An acquisition or disposal of voting rights			Yes
An acquisition or disposal of financial instruments which may result in the acquisition of shares already issued to which voting rights are attached
An event changing the breakdown of voting rights
Other (please specify):
3. Full name of person(s) subject to notification obligation:	JPMorgan Asset Management Holdings Inc.
4. Full name of shareholder(s) (if different from 3):	JPMorgan Asset Management (UK) Limited
5. Date of transaction (and date on which the threshold is crossed or reached if different):	22 March 2010
6. Date on which issuer notified:	24 March 2010
7. Threshold(s) that is/are crossed or reached:	5% downwards

8: Notified Details
A: Voting rights attached to shares
Class/type of shares If possible use ISIN code	Situation previous to the triggering transaction		Resulting situation after the triggering transaction
	Number of shares	Number of voting rights	Number of shares	Number of voting rights		Percentage of voting rights
				Direct	Indirect	Direct	Indirect
GB00B1WBW239	16,639,377	16,639,377			15,264,208		4.97%

B: Financial Instruments
Resulting situation after the triggering transaction
Type of financial instrument	Expiration date	Exercise/ conversion period/date	No. of voting rights that may be acquired (if the instrument exercised/converted)	Percentage of voting rights
N/A

Total (A+B)
Number of voting rights	Percentage of voting rights
15,264,208	4.97%

9. Chain of controlled undertakings through which the voting rights and /or the financial instruments are effectively held, if applicable:

Total disclosable holding for JPMorgan Asset Management Holdings Inc: 15,264,208 (4.97%) JPMorgan Asset Management (UK) Limited: 15,264,208 (4.97%)

Proxy Voting:
10. Name of proxy holder:	N/A
11. Number of voting rights proxy holder will cease to hold:	N/A
12. Date on which proxy holder will cease to hold voting rights:	N/A

13. Additional information:	N/A
14 Contact name:	Frances Smith, Company Secretary
15. Contact telephone name:	01223 488500

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

END