More On The State Of Matrox

[Sinistral]

- Wow, i never expected it to be this bad. I just hope Matrox can do a 180 and figure out a way from the mess they're in... -

[PAugustin]

This is really sad. I was still hopping to buy a new card from Matrox in order to replace may G400max. Now I feel that it' useless. I know the disaster that bad marketing people can make. I guess my money will go to Ati, at least they manage to get ou of rough they were in to challange Nvidia...
Only thing we have left it hoping that they will manage to fight back and be the company they have been again...
Good luck Matrox :-(

[GNEP]

It's a real shame. There are obviously some people there doing a great job (we've see Haig's lot and R0M in action), but the whole dartboard thing suggests to me that they have pinned their marketing strategy on the old "build a better mousetrap" model - never a very good idea, especially if there are even better mousetraps around.

The situation is not terminal from what I can see though - it sounds like the owners have taken all they want from the company, and are "made" men, thus producing a crisis of leadership. A new CEO, and perhaps a public floating would (a) provide more funds for R&D, and (b) wrest control away from the incumbents.

Unfortunate that the market for IPO's in the tech sector isn't exactly stunning at the moment.

Out of interest, I know that MGA isn't the only division - how are the other ones doing, in comparison? Video Editing seems a bit better, but obviously there is some interlinks there.

I would love to personally get stuck in there and see what could be done. A company can be profitable and work well with incredibly high levels of internal politics going on - hell I work for one (bit of a different animal though ) - but the culture has to both use this for a benefit and keep it from doing too much damage. Clearly not the case now at Matrox.

Real real shame because I really like the whole quality thing behind Matrox cards - so rare in the tech industry these days - and do enjoy my Parhelia.

Gnep

[mutz]

...well, when I first saw the Parhelia bumpf appear on the website, I thought uh-oh, who let the bullshitters in? Previously Matrox did very well with a kind of understatement. But then the "new image" and the packaging, just embarrassing...

The owners have somehow defaulted. The company is not in a state to go public.

But the main question is, who IS really running the company?

...or has that drifted into default too?

[GNEP]

It may not be in a state to go public now, but strong leadership put there with that goal in mind would produce a bit of direction, no?

Who is running the company now? Presumably the owners in a hands-off fashion on the corporate level (hence my point about them seeming disinterested now they are getting older and have plenty of cash), but on the divisional level MGA has a problem.

Perhaps just this division could be sold to SiS/Trident. With the Xabres in a lineup with faster Parhelias, you would have an excellent product line across the whole market to rival ATi's recent efforts.

[Admiral]

I didn't start this thread as a joke you know.

[AndrewDV]

I wonder if this is part of management's "exit strategy?"

[SpiralDragon]

what can we users do.. is it posible to write a petition/organise a demonstration or something like that... we need to make our selves heard........ matrox maybe privatly owned but it has to deal with its fan base right?

[mutz]

...or maybe the owners have been meddling with management, or have put in light-weight management to avoid being challenged in their meddling.

Original founders and owners rarely leave their company to wend it's own way and milk the cow when the need it. Heirs do that...

Privately owned companies don't have to please anybody, and if their target market is corporate, a fan base is just a nuisance.

[Umfriend]

Privately owned companies don't have to please anybody, and if their target market is corporate, a fan base is just a nuisance.

If the owners' goal is maximising his/her value/cashflow, then they face the same contraints and incentives as public companies do.

Umf

[mutz]

...(just provoking a little)

[Umfriend]

OK, what is true is that as CEO of a public company, shareholders may try to claim damages if u mess up.
Umf

[GNEP]

But with limited success. And that sort of "personal downside" is really not the best motivator to align customer, CEO and shareholder interests (and debtholder and employee too for that matter).

[GT98]

Well I think it just boils down to the owners of the company and what they want to do with it. They need to get a new team in at the Graphics division if they want to see any more success in that market. Then again the whole kicker of this is that the Digital Video department makes tons of money and they might but just content on living off that..Either way its not a pretty situation at all...

[CaineTanathos]

this is something I don't like :
"until the 4X is gone.. while the 8X is only 20% faster but it fixes pretty much all the problems people
are seeing in the 4X.. "

But now we know why there it doesn't have an occlusion unit ...
Damn, there are working some serious screw-ups at the marketing / management department