Samsung Americas EVP Out, Goes To Small Analytics Company

How come this departure statement (partly based on the SSI interview), for me at least, seems painfully too real, even though its just about as vague as other recent statements. Maybe because its him talking directly or just the timing?

"pursue opportunities nearer to my home where I can achieve a better balance between work and family."

Is that quote an IPVM scoop? I didn't notice it in the articles... Interestingly, he has retired twice before, and though he says he would like to eventually consult, its too early to say whether its quite Frankly The End for De Fina or not...

DeFina is going to Sightlogix, a niche video analytics manufacturer.

That's a shocking (downward) move and gives credence to the claim that De Fina was removed from Samsung.

On the positive side, this is good news for Sightlogix. While they have a solid reputation for high end / government analytics, they've struggled to expand / grow.

Unfortunately for the new VP of Sales, it's more of a product positioning challenge than a sales execution one.

Perhaps Sightlogix will roll out a mass market video analytic offering but, until and unless that happens, it is going to be hard for Sightlogix to break out of its niche.

Also be interesting to see how DeFina can wine and dine the trade press with his massively reduced marketing budget. I hope the trade mag editors can get their free steak dinners from somewhere...

From what we have learned, Sightlogix has struggled in its heretofore core market of critical infrastructure with recent annual revenue in the $5 million range and a private market capitalization of ~$10 million.

They are hoping to pivot / expand into the commercial space with an RMR offering that automates guard patrol services. This certainly has been tried before, and VideoIQ had some success with central monitoring stations, though even they only managed to hit $10 million total company annual revenue before acquisition.

It's a gambit for Sightlogix to move downmarket, but it's certainly a bigger market and certainly better than just hoping the anti-terrorism / 9/11 happy money days return. Key to Sightlogix's ambitions is to leverage their 3rd generation products to get their pricing down. While Sightlogix has worked to get their once massive pricing lower, commercial price points are much harder to meet than critical infrastructure / government ones.

Sightlogix appears to have raised some money this year and along with the De Fina hire are hoping this breaks them into the mainstream after a decade of trying.

Again forget about price its market share. Again look at what Japanese did in the automotive Market. A samsung is big enough, tech savy enough, and could sacrafice short term profit for market domanice in the mid to long term venue.