NewTeeVee: Akimbo Changes Course, Switches Off Boxes
May 6, 2007
Source: http://newteevee.com/2007/05/06/akimbo-changes-course-switches-off-boxes/
Starting tomorrow, Akimbo is no longer going to sell the box, and will offer discounts and refunds to some of the existing box owners.
In addition to putting its box to sleep, the company is also going to announce a consumer-centric website on Monday, including a video discovery service that will allow consumers to buy and peruse content.
This is a big gamble for three-year-old-Akimbo, which had raised over $27 million in funding from big name VCs like Kleiner Perkins and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.
Akimbo recently made its Internet-based video-on-demand service available on Windows PCs, and the company is working with other hardware vendors to port its service to their platform.
On his blog, Joesph Lazlo of Jupiter Research said, “It marks a big change of strategy for them — and of course strategies tend to change more often when they’re failing than when they’re working.”
Frank, who recently joined the company as CEO, feels that there is little room for standalone boxes, and is of the opinion that consumers are more likely to opt for a multipurpose box.
Cisco, another investor, has made no bones about its consumer electronics ambitions and could easily bundle Akimbo with Linksys and Kiss product offerings, though apparently there are not plans for that yet.
In order to make up for the pain caused by its strategic shift, Akimbo is going to offer its subscribers three months free service before switching off the boxes, and will issue refunds on some of the recent purchases.
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