Running into the sun

By Carl Ford

Please consider the lyrics to Jackson Browne's song "Running on Empty." Like Jackson Browne, I am not sure when the road turned into the one I am on.

Dialogic has been consolidating the industry, adding to its portfolio of assets with acquisitions from Brooktrout, Cantata, Eicon, Excel, Open Media, Snowshore and now NMSS on the platform side.

The result is a powerhouse of solutions that support internet, wire line and wireless applications. It also has a diverse portfolio that can become synergistic, supporting fax, voice, video and web-based applications.

Best of all, the complete portfolio has a sales force in all the markets: enterprises, carriers and application developers.

So I am positive about the synergies of the deal.

Now the reason Jackson Browne's lyrics came to mind. We are clearly in a slow down in telecom. Traditionally telecom is one of the first industries to go into a slowdown (Note to self: do not use politically charged terms with ridiculous definitions), and one of the last to break out of it. 

It's hard selling in the space right now. I know sales are occurring and I am talking with my friends who are buying, but a lot of the work is based on internal consolidation. 

So keeping a company looking good to the pressures of Wall Street is hard.  Dialogic is a privately held company and that is a good thing these days.  Making the numbers work in a down turn often creates a false pressure for results that are unsustainable.

Keeping a company profitable while focused on a down turn often requires the company to focus beyond the 10K and the next quarter's results.

Now on the NMS Communications side. 

NMS Communication has been a tale of two companies in its financial reporting.  One is a stable company that makes platforms, and the other is a new company called LiveWire Mobile that supports music and video content that can be personalized and integrated into your phone via ring tones and ring backs as well.

With the platform sold, only Livewire Mobile remains. Here is a company that provides the content platform that is needed to compete with the Apple iPhone iStore.  If you believe that the iPhone is not the long tail but the trend, then Live Wire Mobile may be the platform you are seeking.

In my opinion, the Apple iPhone is an iPod that makes calls. It's not a phone.  The other smartphone players are gearing up to compete, and it may be that Live Wire Mobile will be the beneficiary. 

The expanded Dialogic also has a play in this game. The new video abilities it's developing, coupled with its wireless platforms, could bring them to  a new level of competitiveness  that can help the ISVs compete with Nortel and Alcatel-Lucent.

The good news about Dialogic being private is, "if it takes all night, that will be alright."  And that makes me smile.