Level 3 to Stream TED Talks

December 5th, 2012 by · 15 Comments

Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) won another streaming deal this morning from the visionary vertical.  Ok, there is no visionary vertical, but maybe there should be.  TED will be using Level 3’s CDN to stream its Ted Talks videos, of which there are 1,400 now that as a group have been viewed more than a billion times, and other parts of its networking needs as well.

With its stock price still below $20 some 14 months after the close of the transformative Global Crossing deal, Level 3 is clearly looking forward to springtime as much as anyone.   The market is waiting for a higher growth rate to materialize out of their rising capex numbers, but I don’t think many realize how rapidly the EBITDA and cash flow picture is changing now that the first wave of Global Crossing Synergies has gained critical mass.  Next year will look a lot different no matter what the growth, but much better of course if they find some.

As for TED, I haven’t exactly lived under a rock but honestly I’ve never really had a clear idea of what TED is until looking it up today.  And it’s still pretty vague, but TED is a nonprofit devoted to ‘Ideas Worth Spreading’, which to an engineer like myself means a bunch of talks given by the small minority of geeks out there who can give decent talks accessible to a wide audience.  The videos they are streaming definitely worth watching.  Here’s one from Andrew Blum earlier this year, if you’d like to burn some bandwidth.

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15 Comments So Far


  • ABC says:

    Don’t expect that growth anytime soon if these are the kind of deals they are landing and deem PR worthy. TED….lmao.

  • CarlK says:

    Over time, I have found it to be a very informative, educational and sometimes entertaining site. Maybe you are right though, and naming it “Geeks With a Gift to Gab” might be more appropriate…..

    Why does your board permit two identical “Anonymous” user names who appear here as two different personas rather than one in the same? Should there be a TED TALK to explain this silliness for eighteen minutes or less?

  • CarlK says:

    Will the REAL ANONYMOUS please lay down and die? LOL, but I am not kidding. Identify the real “ANONYMOUS” by plucking he/she/it OUT from their OPAQUE WORLD, and I will show you cowards representing Robber Barons…..What did he say now? LOL!

  • Steve Maloney says:

    Don’t have any idea what the revenue from this will be. But, I have watched a number of really interesting TED presentations over the years. There are some really good presentations in their library.

  • Level 3 RIF says:

    Well it’s not enough to keep them from RIF. Last week after they decided to converge their Mid Markets and Large Enterprise Sales Organization, the layoffs started happening. I am a victim of that and heard through January the entire organization will downsize 10-14%. Sales out first so they don’t have to pay the expenses to Orlando for their Sales kickoff in January.

  • ABC says:

    At 1% growth obviously some sales peoples heads will roll. No worries though…Crowe & Co. will get their usual bonuses and keep kicking the can like the last decade or so.

  • Anonymous says:

    Ton’s of people. finance, sales, HR, etc. On a positive note looks like KK finally got what was coming to her. Bye bye KK …. can’t believe you made it so long.

  • Level 3 RIF says:

    Still no announcement? WTF? I think it’s important because I”m already interviewing and I don’t want the interviewer to think I got canned because of performance. I got canned because because Jim Crowe has a House Manager.

  • Bye Bye Birdie says:

    Are you kidding me? They aren’t going to announce a layoff. If they did their competitors could easily use it against them. Rumor is, however, that the majority of the remaining GC leaders are being pushed aside. The guy who ran large enterprise is now in wholesale. The wholesale guy is a new report to a leader in b/w the new leadership. Its like “move the chairs, watch those who don’t have a chair fall” routine.

    • Kim k says:

      I can’t believe what is going on. We need old Gx leaders to come back and save this bureaucratic machine.

      Is pang related to funky?

  • beetlejuice says:

    Hey, at least the next 2-year thread is about L3 and not XO. I can’t think of a second most deserving company to expose the morass of disfunction.

  • CarlK says:

    This comment thread has deteriorated rather abruptly and without good thinking skills behind it. Why?

    If a RIF, then “integration” has been completed satisfactorily with the ability to accelerate synergies within a “blue skies ahead” selling environment for Big (3), you know, because “We don’t sell cotton candy!”

    As importantly, Big (3) can get on with swallowing the next tasty morsel of food which their starving “network” is coveting.

    It seems like “Mr. Market” is catching on when others here are not. imo

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