S3 backs TV set-top box software to be a winner
By Dick O’Brien
S3, a Dublin software and semiconductor firm, expects revenues to rise this year and may raise fresh funding after launching a new product for cable television operators.
The firm’s new product, StormTest, is a suite of software that automates the testing and analysis of television set-top boxes.
John O’Brien, chief executive of S3, said that pay-TV operators were spending more than €2 billion a year maintaining set-top boxes in subscribers ‘homes, and Storm Test was designed to lower the costs of the process. S3 has already won ten deals for the product, with customers in India, China, Europe, the US and Brazil, according to O’Brien.
‘‘You are talking about average deal sizes of perhaps €250,000 over the lifetime of the product. It will save operators a lot of time and money,” he said.
O’Brien declined to comment on S3’s revenue levels, but said that he expected revenues this year to exceed 2009 levels. Its most-recently filed accounts showed that turnover dropped from €24 million in 2007 to €23.5 million in 2008.
‘‘All companies have gone through a rough period in the recession. The digital TV space is very strong for us.
The number of digital TV subscribers is constantly increasing, even during the recession. Semiconductors went through a severe recession in 2008 and 2009, but we are beginning to see a pick up now,” said O’Brien.
S3,which is owned by management and ACT Venture Capital in Dublin, has six design centres and sales offices around the world. The company is funding its product development from its own profits and a €10 million investment by ACT in 2006.
Earlier this year, S3 was one of 12 Irish firms that was selected for a ‘Tech Tour’. The tour involved 30 British and Irish firms pitching to an audience of international venture capitalists and industry figures with €10 billion at their disposal.
O’Brien said that the company did not have immediate plans to raise more venture capital funding, but the TechTour was useful for building future contacts. ‘‘The main reason for us to go to TechTour was increase the profile of the company.
Maybe at some point in the future, when we want to raise capital, then we’ve made the connections,” he said.
The other Irish companies selected for Tech Tour included Tas Group, New Bay, Car Trawler, HeyStaks Technologies, Clavis Technology, CloudSplit and Kore Virtual Machines. Four firms from the North, Andor, Aepona, HeartSine and Lagan Technologies, also took part.
