Posterboy for its problems is Ooyala, whose video playing technology combines high-quality streaming with data-crunching, which is supposed to allow media customers to run targeted adverts within videos. One issue was Telstra's slow-moving monopolistic culture in a competitive sector that changes dramatically every few months, according to one former investor. Scott Flanders, former Playboy CEO and an angel investor in Ooyala, told Reuters that as soon as Telstra took over, Ooyala's once "crisp" customer service and product pipeline began to slip. "They did fall behind ... we probably shouldn't have been, but we were surprised because we thought there'd be more engineers hired and the company would even widen its technology advantage over other, less-well-funded start-ups," Flanders said in a phone interview from Silicon Valley. In two tranches, Telstra spent $US330 million buying 98 per cent of Ooyala between 2012 and 2014. It booked a $246 million impairment on the investment in August.