Welcome back to Baby Breakerdom! This week's quest to find budding Rule Breakers makes me wonder whether the traditional family room -- home of TV time -- is in jeopardy.
Blame Sling Media, a Silicon Valley start-up that, frankly, has me salivating. You see, the company's product, the Sling Box, connects a TV with a broadband network, allowing television to be broadcast to a variety of other Internet-connected devices, including laptops and smartphones. And that includes programming stored on a TiVo
Swwwweeeeeeet.
I'm not the only one who thinks this way. Nokia
Some very high-profile investors agree. According to VentureWire, Sling Media recently closed a B round of $46.6 million in financing from new investors Goldman Sachs
Next we tune into RadioFrame Networks, a wireless networking equipment maker whose devices reportedly increase cellular coverage in congested indoor areas. If that doesn't sound very Rule Breaking, consider two things. First, there are more than 200 million wireless subscribers in the U.S., according to VentureWire. Second, more data than ever is going over mobile networks. (See above.)
Indeed, the infrastructure to support mobile music, video, and game downloads -- and plain vanilla Web access, for that matter -- needs constant care and feeding. RadioFrame's equipment may help. At least, some pretty impressive investors seem to think so. Among them: Craig McCaw, whose former company, McCaw Cellular, was the originator of cell service in the U.S. His newest firm, COM Investments, teamed with Ignition Partners, Innovacom Venture Capital, VantagePoint Venture Partners, Nextel Data Investments, and the venture arm of Ericsson
Sadly, there were no Baby Breaker public offerings this week, which means it's time to say good-bye. See you back here next Friday, when we continue the quest to find the next ultimate growth stock.
For more Rule Breaking Foolishness:
- Check in with last week's infants.
- These babies are so small you'll need an ultrasound to spot them.
- Do these five low-priced stocks belong in your portfolio?
- Who will be the market's next Michael Jordan?
TiVo is a Motley Fool Stock Advisor selection.
Netflix. Marvel. AOL. Starbucks. Find out how David Gardner landed these and other multibaggers by taking a risk-free trial to Motley Fool Rule Breakers today. You'll also learn why our analysts are smashing the market by more than 20% as of this writing. Or simplysign upnow and receiveStocks 2006, which features our analysts' best picks for the year ahead, free. All you have to lose is the prospect ofbetter returns.
Fool contributor Tim Beyers would so dig being able to watch The Daily Show on his trip to Virginia next week. Care to help him out, Sling Media? Tim owns shares of Nokia. You can find out what else is in his portfolio by checking Tim's Foolprofile. The Motley Fool has an ironcladdisclosure policy.