By Gavin Haycock, European Media Correspondent
LONDON (Reuters) - The global technology, media and telecommunication industries are in the throes of upheaval that experiments with new markets, new technologies and new partners as well-funded start-ups jolt old business models.
Leaders in the industry will gather at the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit in Paris, New York and Seoul next week to discuss their strategies at a time of fevered deal activity and intense competition.
With stock markets surging, borrowing costs low and buyers -- both strategic and financial -- ready to front up rich valuations for assets they deem to be in critical sectors and markets, the future seems to be bright.
But pricing and product pitfalls cover everyone from media companies to consumer electronics makers and their component suppliers.
To help combat the pressure, equipment makers in the tech and telecoms industries are getting together with media content providers and advertisers.
"Content is king and the queen is brand," Wolfram Winter, managing director of German pay TV broadcaster Premiere Sky told bankers and executives at a Media Finance conference in London this week.
From a flood of private equity investment in technology to Google Inc.'s $3.1 billion deal for Web advertising supplier DoubleClick or Rupert Murdoch's proposed $5 billion acquisition of Dow Jones & Co. Inc., the competitive landscape is changing fast.
At the Reuters Summit, executives from established media and advertising companies like Viacom Inc., WPP Group Plc and ITV will talk about how they compete against small but often more agile upstarts like Sling Media Inc. and Joost.
The emphasis is on speed and a debate over the relative value of online and offline offerings.
"You need a combination of both," Warner Mandel, a managing director at Rothschild told the Media Finance conference.
"No business wants to put all its eggs in one basket. Nobody knows where it is all going. You also have to remember online is a vast world and a lot of what drives eyeballs to sites is done offline," he added.
TELECOMS, TECH
In the telecoms sector, handset makers Nokia and Sony Ericsson, carriers AT&T, Verizon and Telefonica/O2, and equipment makers like Cisco and Texas Instruments are expected to discuss 3G, emerging markets and whether the wave of M&A will continue.
Investing in new networks to cater for growing demand for online, mobile and high-definition video will also occupy the thoughts of phone carriers and cable and satellite rivals.
"The competition is extremely fierce, I mean it's bloody around the globe," Neil Strother, a wireless analyst at Jupiter Research told Reuters Television. Continued...
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