##copy to Mr Murdoch, CEO, News Corp Head Office in Surry Hills, NSW, Australia##
##copy to Mr Murdoch c/o the Fox offices in Albany, NY, USA##
8th March 2009
Re: Blinkx
Dear Mr Murdoch
I am writing to you as a shareholder of Blinkx, the self-proclaimed “world’s largest and most advanced video search engine”.
Sadly the ability of Blinkx’s management to live up to such proud boasts has – so far at least – proven woefully inadequate. A series of unforced errors – the failure to release what many shareholders see as a key product, Transaction Hijacking, in time for the Christmas 2008 market; the willingness of the CEO Suranga Chandratillake to shoot his mouth off, making rash promises (in public, on the record) which are not subsequently fulfilled; and not least what looks from where I’m standing like an amateur and totally bungled approach for the US company Miva – has resulted in a tanked share price and a management team which seems to now have zero credibility with shareholders and the market.
From everything I’ve read about you, Mr Murdoch, I can’t imagine you shedding any tears for Blinkx shareholders – why should you?
But as an astute businessman I would expect you to be interested in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to pick up what could prove to be the Google of video search at a bargain-basement price. I am writing to you today to suggest that News Corp should make an approach for Blinkx
I’ve read news reports that you were interested in buying Blinkx from Autonomy several years ago before it was spun out: if you were interested then you must be even more interested now – 35 million hours of long-form, professionally produced video; more than 500 content and syndication partners; world-leading technology protected by some 111 patents; and with partnerships in place with some of the leading media and technology companies in the world, including the BBC and Microsoft UK.
In addition to all of that, Blinkx would fit particularly well into your own online strategy. Fox recently acquired Utarget, which I believe sells media planning and buying services to match Blinkx’s search technology with appropriate contextual advertisements. Buying Blinkx would allow you to vertically integrate these operations, extracting greater revenue from the value chain. Why just make money from planning and buying when you could also make money from the back-end technology?
In addition, a purchase of Blinkx would allow a licensing of Blinkx’s search technologies to Hulu, strengthening the position of your joint venture with NBC in an increasingly crowded market place.
As regards price: my own view is that you could probably acquire Blinkx for somewhere in the region of 60p a share. The price may currently be around 12.5p, but it seems unlikely that the large institutional investors who bought into the IPO at 45p (only 18 months ago) would be persuaded to sell for less than they paid then. However, in the current markets a return of 30% on their investment in under two years – at an offer price of 60p a share – would almost certainly gain a positive hearing.
My motive in this is transparent, Mr Murdoch: I wish to see a return on my investment, and have absolutely no confidence in Blinkx management to deliver one. I have held since shortly after the IPO and have watched with growing incredulity and anger as Blinkx’s management has made what I consider to be mistake after mistake. The decline in the share price supports my view.
In any case, none of that is your concern. But the chance to buy the next big thing in video search for a price in the region of £175m probably should be your concern. I would strongly recommend you take a close look at Blinkx.
Yours sincerely,
