Online Video Beneficiaries: Introduction

Last night, I started publishing an interview with Jerry Rawls, CoFounder and CEO of Finisar (FNSR), an fiber optics components leader that has gone through tremendous turmoil in its relatively long history.

Remember, fiber optics, at one time, was a very hot market. Numerous startups got funded, massive amounts of venture money went down those proverbial optical tubes. The telcos managed to build up enormous over capacity in the system, until finally the market collapsed.

Today, on the wings of upstart (and questionable) services like YouTube, online video has become a major phenomenon. Braodband, over the last 10 years, has become ubiquitous, at least in the US. And it seems as though the fiber optics market is on its way back.

Companies like Finisar (FNSR), JDS Uniphase (JDSU), Opnext (OPXT), Avanex (AVNX), Bookham (BKHM), and Infinera are potential beneficiaries of this trend. For those investing in fiber optics today, it may be worthwhile to follow the saga of Finisar, as they navigated their way out of the telecom meltdown, and has emerged as a strong player. The interview will be published here, over the next 2 weeks.

Of course, another very large beneficiary of the Online Video trend is Cisco (CSCO), which is doing everything it possibly can to boost the trend further. Acquiring social media startups has been one such recent tactic. Several of the above companies, most certainly Finisar, JDS, Opnext, are key suppliers to Cisco, and when Cisco wins, the crumbs of those wins tend to travel downstream all the way to their factories in Asia!

This segment is a part in the series : Online Video Beneficiaries