Last week Level 3 announced that they were making strategic changes to the company, including eliminating approximately 150 positions and realigning their customer facing groups in North America. Today, most of those changes were communicated internally and some of these changes will directly affect the CDN group. It was announced last week that Grant Van Rooyen who was the President of the Content Market Groups is gone and I've now learned that Lisa Guillaume who is the VP of CDN Services for Level 3 will be leaving this week. While Level 3 said about three people from the CDN group are leaving due to these changes, I'm hearing the number may be higher. Updated 5/5: Todd Coleman, SVP of Media Operations for Level 3 is also leaving the company.

While all companies make changes, the way in which Level 3 has communicated these changes has been odd. Today alone, I took quite a few calls from Level 3 customers asking me exactly what is going on at Level 3 and multiple customers told me of various changes as opposed to me hearing about them directly from Level 3. A quick check with some of Level 3's competitors also shows that in the past 24 hours, some Level 3 CDN customers have been reaching out to other CDNs, which means someone is not communicating the change very well.

At one point or another, change happens with all companies. But when it happens in such a short span of time and the company does nothing to communicate those changes to the market, it leaves everyone speculating on what is actually taking place. I never understood why companies don't get in front of the news and manage that message to the market and to customers, instead of letting the market come up with their own message and interpretation of what is taking place.

Many have been asking me today whether or not Level 3's new alignment of their business spells the end of their CDN services. While Level 3 has said the opposite, I do have to wonder how the change affects the way the product is marketed and sold. While Level 3 has been smart to integrate CDN into their other offerings, selling CDN can't be thought of as selling something like transit. You need to have a hands-on approach with CDN and all of the various video ecosytem pieces that go along with it.

To date, Level 3 has done what I consider to be a terrific job in the market going from nothing to $50M in CDN revenue in just under two years. They have a real ecosystem offering, have very happy customers and for the past 24 months, have been executing what I consider to be a very solid and strategic game plan. But with Level 3 now realigning the company and putting new people in charge of the content markets group, which the CDN product falls under, we'll have to keep a close eye on how these changes may affect their CDN offering going forward.

At next week's Streaming Media East show, I'll be meeting with executives from Level 3's CDN group to hear more details on what their CDN strategy is moving forward, so look for a blog post with more details on this subject in two weeks.

I just had two companies both cancel their speaking spots next week at the Streaming Media East show on a session entitled "The Impact Of Broadband-Enabled TVs, Gaming Consoles And Devices". I don't know why companies in that segment of the market are so flaky as this seems to happen each year with the devices panel.

I'm now looking for two new speakers for this session and am open to all suggestions. Below are the details, please contact me via e-mail only, as I have the flu and am not answering the phone. Thanks.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009 – C202 – 11:45 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
The Impact Of Broadband-Enabled TVs, Gaming Consoles And Devices
With the influx of new devices, consumers no longer rely on just the PC for their online video consumption. With the number of new broadband-enabled TVs and Blu-ray players expected to be sold, along with devices such as the Xbox, Roku, TiVo, and PS3, consumers now have many ways to get their video fix. So what are the new business models that will be created from these new devices? What hurdles need to be overcome so that content can be monetized for multiple platforms? Explore with this panel the role of current consumer entertainment devices in this new convergent world and how these devices will play together to offer a superior video experience.

Last month I started hearing whispers from the banking community that content delivery network Velocix was close to being acquired with multiple parties interested. I can now confirm that Velocix is in fact negotiating the sale of the company with at least two interested parties at mid to late stages of the process.

While I am not giving out any more details on who those two companies may be, I can say that various companies in the telco and network equipment community have shown interest in Velocix, primarily for their recently announced Metro product. The expected acquisition will not be a fire sale like we saw with Panther Express and Grid Networks as acquiring Velocix is more about getting access to their Metro technology and platform rather than their CDN contracts.

When contacted, Velocix declined to comment on any potential M&A activity, but did say that since announcing their Metro CDN enablement solution for ISPs in December last year, there has been a significant increase in the level of interest in their business. I expect we'll see the acquisition take place sometime in this quarter.

The Content Delivery Summit is only a week away and on Monday May 11th we’ve got nearly 50 speakers discussing a dozen different facets of the content delivery business. One of the afternoon sessions brings together a group of Wall Street analysts from Kaufman Bros., BankStreet Group, Globespan Capital Partners, Thomas Weisel Partners and Flybridge Capital who will discuss the M&E activity in the CDN industry.

CDN Economics: Consolidation And Evaluation (2:30 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.)
Analysts have widely speculated that we’re going to soon see merger and acquisition activity grow in the CDN space, but to date, little has taken place. CDNs continue to raise large amounts of VC money, and each quarter more CDNs enter the market. What are the current valuations for CDN companies, and where will VC money be directed in the future? What types of deals are being pitched to bankers, which ones are they having the most success selling, and what are the characteristics of the ones they are searching for. Come hear speakers discuss the current M&A and VC environment  and assess whether the economics of the CDN industry make it ripe for rapid consolidation.

• Moderator: Colby Synesael, SVP, Equity Research, Kaufman Bros.
• Panelist: James Henry, Senior Managing Director, Investment Banking, BankStreet Group
• Panelist: Jonathan Seelig, Managing Director, Communications and Internet/Infrastructure, Globespan Capital Partners
• Panelist: Blake Warner, Managing Director, Software, Media, & Telecom Investment Banking, Thomas Weisel Partners
• Panelist: David Aronoff, General Partner, Flybridge Capital

If you have a question you want me to ask one of the companies, put it in the comments section below. And you can still register with the special discount price at this link.

While many conferences only allow attendees to hear opening keynotes from those who have paid to attend the conference, keynotes at the Streaming Media East and West shows have always been open to anyone at no charge as long as they register for a free exhibit pass. I've gotten a lot of questions and about this lately and am happy to confirm that the keynotes are in fact free.

We've got a great combination of verticals represented in the keynotes next month including infrastructure, (Akamai), enterprise, (Bank of America), telco, (Verizon) and TV media center, (boxee).

You can register now for your free exhibit pass and hear all of these keynotes free of charge.

• Paul Sagan, CEO, Akamai
• Gregg Moss, SVP, Enterprise Streaming Media Strategy and Delivery, Bank of America, Knowledge Channel
• Joe Ambeault, Director, Product Development and Management, Video Services, Verizon
• Avner Ronen, CEO, Founder, boxee

If you have a question you want me to ask one of the companies, put it in the comments section below.

The 54 page ruling in the Akamai and Limelight patent case is now online. You can read the PDF here. Most of the interesting reading in towards the end.

Now that Limelight has prevailed in their patent lawsuit with Akamai, (copy of ruling here) many would think this now clears the way for Limelight to be immediately acquired by one of the major telcos. While I know of at least two telcos who have been interested in the past and made offers to acquire Limelight, those were during very different economic times.

While no one is expecting the market to improve anytime soon to the levels it was in 07', Limelight is not short on cash and does not need to accept a buyout offer just to survive. If anything, I expect Limelight will be the one doing the acquisitions shortly to help shore up some of their ecosystem pieces that tie into content delivery. Limelight can simply wait until they get the right valuation in the market before they agree to any kind of buyout and while that could always come tomorrow, realistically they probably wait until the market improves, their market cap goes up and they get the kind of evaluation they want.

It will also be interesting to hear whether or not Akamai will now make an updated offer to acquire Limelight. While Akamai did make an offer during the trial, from what I was told, Akamai didn't put a high value on Limelight's business and made a low-ball offer, which made sense at the time. But with Limelight winning the patent trial and growing their business nicely over the past eighteen months, clearly Limelight's business is worth a lot more today. I have no indication yet if Akamai will make another offer to acquire Limelight, but I would not be surprised if they do. They have the cash to do it, their stock is at a six month high and they have a track record of acquiring their competition to keep themselves the dominant player in the market.