Back in the day we were all getting geared up fro another IPO/ The SEC filings had been made, there was a great valuation and the future looked bright. Selling our share options was the golden ticket to happiness. we all eagerly awaited the day it happened. BUT we then caught a snake oil salesmans eye.. He is NOT Jesus but he has the same initials. Well he got to thinking that if he bought NDS he could then sell IP routing and switching fabric to the same broadcasters - after all they use IP right? Video WAS the new voice and Cisco saw the bits crashing through their fabric and generating fat stacks of cheddar - Right. My guess is that NDS' version of the acronym IP and JC's version meant two different things. NDS predominantly delivered content over satellite... So the Jesus character wooed our leadership and the leadership had no choice but to maximise shareholder value so they engaged. Jesus took them to CA and entertained them on his boat, happy meals and sunny deals all round. JC was so convinced that he needed these leaders, the 12 disciples, that he wrote into the purchase agreement that they had to sign on for a certain period. They did. I would. In return they would get a nice fat payout at some near future date. The deal was done - the i's dotted and the t's crossed. Staff were asked to come to central locations to get the news of who would buy us. We salivated - Apple, Amazon, Yahoo, Microsoft. No one ever suspected Cisco and boy were we disappointed; deflated in fact. BUT we had to make the best of it - we were wooed by Cisco, fed the same BS that the 12 were fed and we swallowed it hook line and sinker. Cisco would learn from us - our model of customer engagement, go to market strategy was just what they were needing. THEY could LEARN from US - boy were we flattered. We thought we would be left alone as a standalone BU and that they would look to us and learn.
Almost as soon as the ink was dry on the deal it started to go wrong. They split the sales and engineering delivery organizations who used to work hand in hand to deliver. Fatal. They grafted in exec. after exec. from Cisco none of whom had a clue about our business. leader 1 was pushed out pretty quick, leader 2 left for "personal reasons', leader 3 - well best left unsaid, leader 5 left "personal reasons" again and now leader 6 - a Seachange Capo with about as much clue how to run the NDS crew as a vegan knows how to run a butcher shop.
Oh, along the way all of the options we had were zeroed out - we would get Cisco options instead.. fat chance. We got a few crappy RSU's and an ESPP. Some of us got it I mean.
I forgot to mention leader 4. So since leader 3 left and leader 4 took over we have been systematically run into the ground in the name of maintaining the bottom line. Leader 4 got promoted on the back of it along with one of their senior capos. Now there is nothing left to cut. The products are stuff that no customer wants.
Now the clueless leader 6 with his "fat pipe" are in charge the xNDS business is up for sale again - they will be lucky to recoup even 10% of the $5 billion they paid - yes FIVE BILLION DOLLARS. A business school example in the very near future. How to invest 12 billion dollars (they paid 7 billion for SA and 5 billion for NDS) and reduce it to less than 500 million in only 7 years.