Some thoughts on the CMP reorganization

My phone has been ringing off the hook today about UBM's decision to dump the CMP identity and create four new business units. Some of the response has been good, some bad but most was "didn't see that coming."



UBM head honcho David Levin did an interview at Paidcontent.com explaining the reasoning and you can take that as you like but Levin has a history of turning good ideas that didn't make it into better ideas that did.



He was involved with Psion a few years back and was instrumental in spinning the embedded OS company Symbian out of the handheld computing pioneer, then proceeded to kick Microsoft' ass in its own back yard of OS dominance. Today, Symbian is a hard competitor with Microsoft in the portable OS market with the exception in the US where Microsoft still holds sway. In fact, one of the reasons US customers can't get one of the more nifty smart phones you see in Europe is because Microsoft is working overtime keeping them out of this market. That's why, unless you have an iPhone, you are forced to accept the occasional blue screen of death on your fancy phone.



Count on Levin to push the newly formed UBM business units to perform well or they will be on the block. In the new world of marketing and media, Levin is going to take no prisoners.

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