Interview with Peter Blackmore, CEO, UTStarcom
Peter Blackmore is actually going to take charge as CEO of UTStarcom from July 1st. The present CEO - Hong Lu, an equally charming guy - updated us yesterday on NGN voice and the service providers they are trying to win over. Hong revealed that one of its softswitches in China (just outside Shenzen) is serving around 3 million subscribers. That is perhaps the biggest single softswitch POP I have heard about.
Anyway, back to the interview with Peter. I caught up with him right after the company’s analyst event here in New York today. We talked about (1) UTStarcom’s ability to cross sell its complementary triple play product lines to customers, (2) company’s strong focus on IPTV, (3) reasons for offloading the IP CDMA business, (4) strategy to address opportunities in Eastern Europe, and (5) strategy to address the issue of lower gross margins in the handset business.
Apart from the video content above, I would add the following notes from his presentation that we sat through earlier during the event:
• IPTV is the priority in terms of investment including marketing and R&D
• In order to return to profitability, the company has identified three main areas to address: (1) cost base, (2) changes in supply chain, and (3) product focus.
• Company to focus on particular economies and customers that provide the fastest growth and higher acceptance of UTStarcom products
• While IP CDMA business (recently offloaded) was great, it demanded higher investment to take advantage of the niche solution. Scale of business was also an issue. By divesting, the company reduces cost base and improves product focus.
• Settlement with SEC. No penalty incurred in the process.
• Non-PAS handsets (still accounting for majority of UTStarcom business) considered non core now.
