Flip Video was a poster child for a successful startup a few years ago. Got started in 2001 as Pure Digital and was selling over a million units per year in 2008. They were portable, easy to use and low priced, and favored by a lot of consumers. They could have gone public.
So, Cisco bought one of the fastest growing tech companies in 2009 and is now shutting it down. The founders and investors in Pure Digital probably made out well in the Cisco buyout of $590 Million, but now 500+ employees are going to be laid off. A fallout of Cisco's failed consumer strategy.
Who loses? For sure the employees who're now seeing pink instead of green. Also the consumers, who're losing out on the availability of a popular little camcorder and in the fact that innovation in this space got stymied (not everyone wants a smartphone camera as the only choice - even smartphone owners).
Just a story of a startup that appeared to have a (somewhat) happy ending and then - didn't.
No comments:
Post a Comment