Friday, November 16, 2012

Turned for the Worse

It's amazing the number of companies who have taken a turn for the worse. Microsoft, RIM, Hostess, Neutral Tandem, The US Postal Service, and, according to TheStreet, Intel, Netflix and Pandora.

There are a lot of companies that didn't make strategic decisions to pivot the business because they were stuck in the rut.

Neutral Tandem, now Intelliquent, lost $13M in market cap this week. They spent about $110M(including debt) to buy TINET. market cap today is $73M. They had 900 customers globally and had a dispute with one about voice inter-connection that cost them a $9M cash settlement. IQNT is now in cost cutting mode. That mode go well.

As TheStreet article stated, you have to raise revenue.

You also have to know when to pivot and to where. Certainly, you can ride out a business plan to the end, but that isn't sustainable (it's an exit strategy).

Right now, many companies are looking to pivot - to get bought, to buy, to take out a competitor, to get into cloud, to acquire new talent/skills/revenue. What are you looking to do?

SIDE NOTE: If you are with Neutral Tandem, you might want to put a backup plan in place.

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