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Big
Blue Ramps Up for Digital Assault on Hollywood 6/4/2001 Big Blue’s local outfit has been ramping up, unveiling an array of high-tech products that it is targeting at the entertainment and media industry. “Media and entertainment hasn’t been a focus area or one that they’ve talked about,” said Bear Stearns & Co. analyst Andrew Neff. “But IBM’s whole agenda is to identify new markets that they can target.” Since April, the Armonk, N.Y.-based company has rolled out a range of new products and services – including digital encoders, storage drives, flat-panel screens and software products like IBM Media Production Suite – that are targeted at entertainment and media companies. The goal is to become a high-tech supermarket to an industry that is poised to go digital. “IBM is really a portfolio company with a hardware and software piece, services and consulting and a technology piece,” said Steve Canepa, a vice president of IBM’s local Media and Entertainment Industry division. “We are applying that entire portfolio to the media and entertainment industry.” IBM becomes an attractive choice for fiscally cautious entertainment and media company chiefs at a time when most tech providers are struggling to make ends meet. Besides ongoing customers in L.A. like Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp. and Edison International, IBM is now getting the attention of media moguls. It announced last month that AOL Time Warner’s CNN will use Media Production Suite to digitize the news channel’s vast videotape library. In March, IBM announced its partnership with NeTune Communications, a broadband provider funded by Hughes Electronics Corp. that uses digital satellite and fiber-optic networks to move and manage digital content for Hollywood. IBM took an undisclosed equity stake in NeTune. The alliance includes a five-year outsourcing agreement in which NeTune will pay IBM about $112 million for a wide range of Blue technology, including hardware, software, storage and tech support. IBM will also lend marketing support to NeTune. “We’re not in the media business,” Canepa said. “We’re here to enable. Our customers are aware of that. We’re helping them extend their brand.” Intellectual Challenge A frighteningly powerful roster of national technology leaders last week voiced opposition to pending state legislation that would get rid of the confidentiality agreements that typically let businesses keep court proceedings private. The two bills are intended to protect the public by giving them access to proprietary business information in “smoking gun” documents. Supporters of the legislation say they want consumers to be allowed to know when a company is sued for a dangerous or faulty product. Opponents argue that the legislation is anti-tech and threatens intellectual property, the crown jewel of the tech industry. Leading the opposition is TechNet, a muscled up political arm of the high-tech industry led by Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers partner John Doerr and Rick White, TechNet’s CEO. According to TechNet, the bills would make intellectual property and other sensitive business information public with the mere accusation of wrongdoing. In a letter sent to Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, and other policymakers, TechNet members lashed out at the legislation: “We firmly believe that this legislation has the potential to devastate California’s high-technology and biotechnology industries,” the letter states. “The technology industry’s most valued assets – intellectual property and other proprietary information – will literally disappear when disclosed to competitors and the public under these bills.” Among the signatures on the letter are those of AOL Time Warner CEO Steve Case, Yahoo Inc. CEO Terry Semel, Compaq Corp. CEO Michael Cappellas and Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy, as well as locals John Pleasants, CEO of Ticketmaster; Byron Roth, CEO of Roth Capital Partners; and Rohit Shukla, CEO of the L.A. Regional Technology Alliance. California State Sen. Martha Escutia, D-Commerce, who authored one of the bills, said in a statement that trade secrets, the main asset of companies dealing with intellectual property, would not be covered by the bill. All in a Name Will regional tech leaders ever reach a consensus on what to call the stretch of land along the coast between San Diego and Santa Barbara? It seems unlikely, as the battle still rages over whether to call it the Digital Coast or Tech Coast. (Does it really matter that much?) Irvine-based Tech Coast Corp. claims it’s all about “Tech” and will be launching a magazine and a “Tech Coast Initiative” June 20 in Long Beach to tout its name. The magazine, to be published annually and titled Tech Coast Magazine, will focus on coastal leaders for its inaugural issue. It will be distributed throughout the region and will have a circulation of about 60,000. Tech Coast Corp. is the venture group founded by Chip Parker that is focused on networking businesses and building a portfolio of technology companies. Its marketing arm, the Tech Coast Alliance, plans to announce on June 30 the results of its year-long research indicating that the Tech Coast is the tech capital of the world, based on revenues generated and numbers of employees and companies. “This launch is all about timing,” said Cameron Bussard, vice president of marketing for Tech Coast Corp. “In a relatively short period of time, the region has gone from almost obscurity to becoming the global leader in tech. It’s really about to explode. But it does not have a unified voice.” Meanwhile, the non-profit Digital Coast Roundtable has been operating in stealth mode in recent months. According to its Web site, the current president is Mike Guttentag and the chairman is outgoing Mayor Richard Riordan, but insiders said the organization is being restructured and will announce a new roster of speakers and board members this summer. Staff members at Digital Cost Roundtable could not immediately be reached for comment. What all the tech groups – including others like the L.A. Regional Technology Alliance and VIC – agree on is that the region has the potential to be a global leader in technology thanks to a diversified economic base, a talented workforce, top-notch universities, international trade infrastructure and – let’s not forget –alluring weather. Will the networking groups come together for the benefit of the region? “The way we like to think of ourselves in relation to the other groups is that they’re boats in water, and we’re the water that raises all the boats up,” Bussard said. “Those other efforts are great and wonderful and necessary. We’ll collaborate if it fits.” Sounds like fightin’ words.
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