[Via Satellite 11-15-13] With more than 54 years in the satellite industry, David Hershberg, Globecomm\u2019s<\/b> CEO, has attended numerous satellite conferences and has seen more than one company come and go. Since founding Globecomm in 1994 with the intention of bringing Internet access to developing countries, he has learned the importance of flexibility and diversification. By leading the company for almost two decades, Hershberg found what it takes to weather economic and political storms in a business that is acutely affected by such changes.<\/p>\n
One of the first challenges that Globecomm faced was the encroachment of fiber optic. Though fiber takes time to establish, once in place it is a powerful competitor to satellite services. After four to five years, the company started noticing the effect of this encroachment in terms of reduced market share, to which it responded by diversifying its focus.<\/p>\n
Globecomm has a presence in the enterprise, broadcast, cellular and maritime markets, which allows the company to stay strong overall. Though varied in markets, the company still uses a lot of its original skillset. \u201cWe\u2019re in a lot of verticals but there is a lot of commonality,\u201d said Hershberg during an interview with Via Satellite<\/i> at Satcon 2013 in New York, N.Y. \u201cThere\u2019s a convergence of all kinds of technologies. What we try to do is be in different areas so we are always able to get some business.\u201d<\/p>\n
No longer focusing as heavily on developing countries, Hershberg took the company to different markets in order to play on the strengths of satellite over fiber. This was the primary reason for entering maritime, \u201cbecause you\u2019re not going to run a fiber behind a ship,\u201d he said humorously. \u201cMaritime was something that fiber was not going to take away from us.\u201d<\/p>\n
What eventually became Globcomm Maritime started as a project to purchase two companies: Telarus Communications<\/b> for $6.5 million, and Mach 6<\/b> for $5.9 million. By acquiring these two companies, Globecomm was able to establish itself in maritime as a subcontractor to Ericsson<\/b>, which had placed two base systems on 400 ships. Then, Globecomm made an intuitive move to handle both sides of the maritime business and from there, grew there to cover more ships, providing both the terminals and service to its customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have the largest floating cellular network in the world because we\u2019re on over 400 different ships. Our company is probably the only one in the world that has a vertical in the maritime business and the cellular business. We combined those two capabilities [because] having all that capability both on the service side and the manufacturing side; we think is really important to our business,\u201d Hershberg said.<\/p>\n
Another challenge the company faced was overcoming the Internet bubble in 2000. Before it burst, common advice was to obtain as much satellite capacity as possible. Globecomm did just that, and found itself in an uncomfortable position. \u201cWe purchased $150 million worth of end-of-life capacity, which as fiber came in we got less and less utilization out of. As a result, we were paying a lot of money for empty satellites,\u201d said Hershberg. \u201cWe ended up cutting a deal with the satellite provider to get out of those contracts. After the bubble burst, a lot of companies in the Internet space went out of business. We were able to hold our own with some of the negotiations we were able to do to get out of those long-term commitments. That was a tough one.\u201d<\/p>\n
More recently, the 2008 recession and 2013\u2019s U.S. sequester created new hurdles for the company. Government is a large fraction of Globecomm\u2019s business, comprising about 60 percent overall. This includes the UN, NATO and other intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) along with ministries and agencies within countries. Still, fluctuations in the U.S. are felt most severely. Hershberg\u2019s tactic remains the same as before: diversify.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been able to book some good business in building broadcast centers and media centers, and our cellular business is doing well,\u201d he said. \u201cToday we have about 90 channels of video that we transmit, we have 3,500 ships we provide communications to, [and] we have 24 cellular companies we provide service.\u201d<\/p>\n
Globecomm\u2019s maritime and cellular business has been growing in lieu of government contracts. In preparation for the U.S. withdraw from Afghanistan, Globecomm is focusing on acquiring more civilian business. \u201cWe have an ISP there that provides service to Karzai\u2019s palace and [different] embassies. We just have to exploit the other areas that we\u2019re good at,\u201d Hershberg said. While challenges abound and will continue to surface, he is positive about the company\u2019s future outlook and opportunities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[Via Satellite 11-15-13] With more than 54 years in the satellite industry, David Hershberg, Globecomm\u2019s CEO, has attended numerous satellite conferences and has seen more than one company come and go. Since founding Globecomm in 1994 with the intention of bringing Internet access to developing countries, he has learned the importance of flexibility and diversification. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":79357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79355"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}