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New Kaleidescape CEO

josh

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⭐️⭐️PATRON⭐️⭐️
Somewhat old news, but didn't get surfaced here on the forum as far as I can tell.

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Kaleidescape Names Tom Furlong as New CEO
Kaleidescape embarks on a new chapter to accelerate the evolution of the ultimate home theater experience for everyone​

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Dec. 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Kaleidescape, Inc., the market leader in movie servers, today announced Tom Furlong as its new CEO. Furlong brings more than 30 years of experience to the position and joins Kaleidescape from Nokia, where he built a cloud-based messaging service with an active user base of over 50M consumers. He replaces company founder Michael Malcolm, who will continue to serve as chairman of Kaleidescape's board of directors.

Furlong joins Kaleidescape at an exciting time: The company recently launched the award-winning Cinema One, its first product designed for retail distribution. Cinema One has received industry-wide recognition as the ultimate movie player delivering the perfect home theater experience.

Furlong's proven leadership and expertise in driving business growth will be essential in leading Kaleidescape in its mission to enhance the Kaleidescape Experience and extend it to millions of people. He is a seasoned executive who has several times grown and managed global product lines that produced over $1B in annual sales. Prior to Nokia, Furlong served in several executive roles: as the COO of Kiyon, a wireless networking company; as senior vice president of marketing, engineering, and operations for SonicWALL, an Internet security company; and as the senior vice president and general manager of workstations at SGI, the company that revolutionized animation and media production.

"Kaleidescape built a leading brand in the home theater market by delivering entertainment without compromise to tens of thousands of people worldwide, and Tom is the perfect individual to take our products to a wider audience," said Michael Malcolm, founder, chairman, and former CEO of Kaleidescape. "He has substantial relevant technical expertise and brings extensive experience in leading and scaling businesses, growing teams, and driving execution. This experience, coupled with his passion for consumer products, has prepared Tom to lead Kaleidescape, and I look forward to seeing his leadership skills in action."

"Kaleidescape has redefined the home theater experience by combining terrific quality with incredible simplicity," said Furlong. "Kaleidescape's achievements have been tremendous and worthy of the industry accolades, awards, and customer loyalty earned over the last decade. I am excited to step into this new role, and look forward to taking the Kaleidescape vision to the next level."

ABOUT KALEIDESCAPE
Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, Kaleidescape has pioneered the development of movie servers that redefine how film enthusiasts purchase, organize, and enjoy their movie collections. Featuring an award-winning user interface that gives viewers unprecedented flexibility and control over the movies they watch, Kaleidescape systems make it easy for customers to select and enjoy Blu-ray and DVD-quality downloaded movies in the comfort of their own homes. Kaleidescape products are available through the finest custom installation dealers and audio/video retailers around the world.

Kaleidescape and the Kaleidescape logo are trademarks of Kaleidescape, Inc., and are registered in the United States and certain other jurisdictions. Cinema One is a trademark of Kaleidescape, Inc. Other trademarks and trade names are owned by third parties and may be registered in some jurisdictions.

SOURCE Kaleidescape, Inc.
 
Hoping he can bring some renewed energy to the company on both the products side as well as the deal-making with Hollywood players. Both will be needed to keep the company on the forefront of the industry... and both will be very big challenges.

I've never met him and don't know him, but at least on paper seems to be a surprising choice as he doesn't have any experience in hollywood deal-making, digital rights, content licensing, or media products in general. That said, I'm sure Michael Malcolm wouldn't have supported the move unless this guy made a strong case how he can navigate these waters for the company.

Hope he registers here on the forum too and posts some things here on occasion for us passionate users/owners/dealers! (doubt it... but we can hope!)
 
Nokia has been a bit of a mixed bag over the last couple years. Not exactly a slam dunk on first blush. Based on the discussions on this board, people would want someone with deep relationships with the movie studios. Instead, I am seeing K going another direction based on this hire. Good news, you should get your mobile application!
 
While deep relationships with studios would be nice, I have to look at the types of innovative products we see coming from Hollywood or that Hollywood insiders try to push and they are chock full of yuck, like the old DivX format and stuffed with enough DRM to make using product a nightmare. I could never watch my WM9 HD version of T2 off the original disc unless I had an internet connection to verify I had permission to play it. I would hate to think of pulling from that brain trust to get a person to run a company that is trying to innovate with new products that make life easier.
 
I don't think anyone was saying they should recruit from tech product development at the studios (which I'd agree has been terrible). Rather someone who knows how to strike deals with studios for content from successful media products companies... i.e. from Amazon, Netflix, Roku, Apple, even a Microsoft or SiriusXM or Comcast...
Another path would have been someone who has legal experience around content licensing and rights issues.
 
I agree. Kaleidescape's Achilles heel right now is its lack of studio support for the download store. Unless that gets fixed, I can see Kaleidescape being left behind. So recruiting someone who can repair relations with the studios is paramount IMHO.
 
I agree. Kaleidescape's Achilles heel right now is its lack of studio support for the download store. Unless that gets fixed, I can see Kaleidescape being left behind. So recruiting someone who can repair relations with the studios is paramount IMHO.

I agree. The Canadian experience gives only one studio which is great as a taste of whats possible with this fantastic technology but it also emphasizes a weakness when my wife regularly suggests Apple TV as the go to source when she wants to watch a movie. As an individual with discriminating taste I will check my inventory of Kaleidescape movies first but my wife has no such allegiance.

I also believe that my friends in Australia, UK etc. feel like second class citizens when it comes to advances that are far too often announced to the world but take a year to make it out to the colonies! Apple has managed to abbreviate that cycle significantly in the majority of cases so that iTunes libraries are relatively in sync around the world.

This isn't meant to be a Kaleidescape bashing, we are all avid fans or we wouldn't be here, this is a sincere message from the Kaleidescape constituents to the new and energized management team. Hopefully the Kaleidescape store is a profitable program for the company and the motivation for growing it continues.

Peter
 
Welcome to Tom Furlong. I hope it works!


Well apparently it didn't (work). We will likely see a press release soon that notes Mr. F's departure. If I understand correctly, he was not a "good fit."


Jim
 
Cannot say that I am surprised. Not happy at all to see such turmoil in the executive ranks of K. Excessive CEO turnover isn't often a positive indication. Could be that he just took this job as a stepping stone...
 
Sometimes the "fit" isn't obvious until the person is in place and making decisions.




Jim
 
Sometimes the "fit" isn't obvious until the person is in place and making decisions.




Jim

I agree Jim, It sure isn't what the company needs right now but better to make these hard decisions early in the game and improve the DNA in the long run. My sixth sense tells me that there isn't a lot of time to wait for a resolution for this one. This company badly needs a leader who can manage NOT the reverse!

Peter
 
Hard times for K. Now amazon releases Prime in Germany with VOD (12.000 titles) for 29 Euro / year in the first year. The are less arguments for "30.000 Euro Kaleidescape system". Very sad. Where is the big innovation or the big innovator (CEO) at K?


Patrick
 
Hard times for K. Now amazon releases Prime in Germany with VOD (12.000 titles) for 29 Euro / year in the first year. The are less arguments for "30.000 Euro Kaleidescape system". Very sad. Where is the big innovation or the big innovator (CEO) at K?

Patrick

I am not sure that will appeal to most K owners. The US has had Prime for a while and it is pretty weak.. If K dies, it won't be because of this.

What I want to know is, how is the new Cinema One doing. I looked at AVS.com and I don't see any "Official Cinema One" owners post, which is concerning as every new CE product seems to get one of these on AVS. The only discussion I see is on the $20k and above segment. If this product flops, then I see an issue for K.
 
To be fair, the Cinema One target buyer isn't as likely to be someone to come to the forum looking for advice and help. As one dealer put it, he's quoting CO systems where he used to put a Blu-Ray player. They *could* be selling in places where people don't even really "get" (at least not for a little while) what they really even have.

And it's not like CO owners have to worry about what hard drive combinations work, nor are they likely to need to replicate content from somewhere else or any of the more complex situations we discuss around here often. And they just haven't had time to fill it up yet...


--Donnie
 
Wow. That makes him like the Conan O'Brien of Kaleidescape! :D

I'd like to nominate Cinelife as the next CEO!
 
Wow guys.....I think we have gone a little deeper than necessary regarding the CEO change!

Not to worry.....K is doing fine, there are no issues that I'm aware of that affect the company long term, and to be clear, the guy taking over the helm is an intelligent, highly skilled individual that is completely knowledgeable about K's operations, and frankly IMO was the logical choice to succeed MM, so it's great to seem him at the helm!

No worries!:)




Jim
 
I'm sure the leadership at K will get it straightened out. Sorry it didn't work out but better to not go down the wrong path than go down it and find out later.
 
I think a change in leadership is a big deal, and the installation of a new CEO can absolutely change the fortunes of a company for good or bad fast, and therefore it is definitely worthy of discussion by passionate fans and stakeholders in the company. The fact that a CEO was put in and then removed rather quickly doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in their process, though we (at least I) don't really know the full context or the story of what happened.

No one wants them to succeed more than me... apologies if I was too flippant or crass in my misguided joke. In hindsight it wasn't fair to the person who was in the role to poke fun... I'm sure it wasn't easy on him, nor on the good people that work at Kaleidescape.

onwards and upwards... best to the team for the next phase of the company.
-josh
 
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