Just a couple years ago, the shares of Ciena Corp. (NASDAQ: CIEN) were above $40. But since then, it's been brutal -- with the shares eventually falling to $5.35. After all, the company is in the competitive telecom-equipment space.

However, things have been getting better lately. In fact, the share price is now at $13.06.

And this week Ciena reported its fiscal Q3 earnings report. While revenues dropped 35% over the past year, they were actually up 14% over the prior quarter. There was a net loss of $26.5 million, or $0.29 per share.

In a move to bring profitability to its popular video sharing site YouTube, Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) has inked a deal with Time Warner, Inc. (NYSE: TWX) to show clips of the company's television shows and movies.

When Google announced back in 2006 that it would be paying $1.65 billion for the popular video sharing site, a lot of critics questioned whether or not the company would be able to turn a profit from the site, which at the time had around 46% of the online video market share.

While On2 Technologies (AMEX: ONT) has strong video compression solutions, the company failed to get much traction over the years (a key reason was the licensing fee structure). It's been especially painful for shareholders.

But today there was some good news: Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) agreed to purchase the company for $106.5 million in stock. On the news of the deal, On2's shares spiked 49% to $0.57.

Not long ago, I wrote about Google, Inc's (NASDAQ: GOOG) YouTube entering a deal with The Walt Disney company (NYSE: DIS) for some of the Mouse's short-form content. Now comes word that Sony Corporation (NYSE: SNE) is in talks with the video platform. Sony apparently wants to supply some feature-length content if a partnership can be struck.

Well, I think a deal will be struck, certainly. Sony obviously doesn't want to see a competitor like Disney getting all the YouTube action. Considering that YouTube is the name in online video, and that the majority of mainstream, casual web surfers know the brand and are comfortable in terms of using it, I can imagine that it doesn't take a genius to figure out that Sony needs to be in the YouTube business.

With all the gloom in the global economy, I got to wondering whether there is anything else going on in the world of business. I'm looking for growth because I think that's what will ultimately bring the economy out of the doldrums. Not surprisingly, that growth is coming from technology companies. In Growth Matters, I look at consumer technology companies that point the way to growth trends -- and in the process introduce services and products you may want to explore.

If you want to make sense of all the video on the Internet so you can view just the good stuff, then Veoh Networks may be worth a visit. I interviewed Veoh Networks' CEO, Steve Mitgang, who told me an interesting tale about Veoh's history: "The founder of Veoh [Dmitry Shapiro] was an expert in security for Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks. Video was active around enterprises as employees were watching more videos on YouTube."

Over the past few years, online videos have grown at a rapid clip. In fact, it's not uncommon for people to watch TV while on their laptops.

Unfortunately, this megatrend isn't translating into much money for Hollywood. If anything, it looks like ad revenues are evaporating.

Of course, traditional broadcast revenues are expected to drop next year as well because of the global recession. In other words, Hollywood is in a tough spot.

Another problem is that there is a spotty track record for online videos. Do people look at the ads? Is there a real brand-building experience?

Despite all the growth, the online video sector is still relatively small and doesn't really move the needle for Hollywood. When coupled with the global recession, it's typical to see cutbacks in experimental things, such as online video.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Streetsmart Guide to Short Selling: Techniques the Pros Use to Profit in Any Market. He is also the founder of BizEquity, a valuation website.

According to an AP article citing data from comScore Inc., people are still in love with the internet. In fact, they love to watch videos on the internet. Furthermore, views of videos online experienced an ecstatic rate of growth in February -- they shot up 66% compared to the year-ago period. Incredible, right? And if you're a media company, you love the data, right?

Well, if you're Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), you love it. If you're a Disney (NYSE: DIS) or a General Electric (NYSE: GE), you would be of two minds about it. For you see, while people are watching videos, oftentimes they are doing it on a platform like Google's YouTube -- they aren't necessarily watching them at ABC.com. The data show that YouTube increased its video views by 15% in February 2008 versus February 2007, and that it captured one-third of the 10 billion video views that occurred in February of this year. Amazing. But sites like ABC.com captured much, much less of those views -- that site, in fact, had a measly 1% share of the pie.

Major content players want surfing eyeballs to come to their sites so they can monetize their online libraries via methods of their own making. Media companies, simply put, still haven't figured out how to adapt to this new electronic entertainment economy, and they still haven't come to terms with YouTube. In an era of social networking and clip sharing, users love to copy content and upload it to sites like YouTube that are very easy and friendly to engage, thus bypassing the owners of such content. How does one fight this?

I recently met up with Suranga Chandratillake, the CEO of Blinkx (a video search engine). He always has something new to talk about, and this time was no different.

His firm has recently launched BBTV, an online service that provides near TV quality. "We have blended our service with the advantages of the web," said Chandratillake. "For example, if you want to know more about an actor, you can click his or her name on a digital transcript and get a profile. This is possible because of our speech translation technology."

Basically, this can be an innovative way to monetize video, which so far has been a tough thing to do.

OK, but isn't high-quality video bandwidth heavy? That's true. However, BBTV uses the power of peer-to-peer networking, which is fairly cost-effective.

To get things rolling, BBTV has a variety of indie films from Dogwoof on the site. "We have more than 250 content partners at Blinkx," said Chandratillake, "and we plan to leverage them on BBTV. We want to be the place for hard-to-get quality content."

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) YouTube continues to gain visitors. It competitors have to be dismayed. Why bother posting video content at all when YouTube owns the market.

According to comScore, YouTube had a 34.3% share of all videos watched in the U.S. during January, an improvement of 1.7 share points over the previous month.

The competition barely registered. AOL, Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), Viacom (NYSE: VIA), and Disney (NYSE: DIS) had embarrassing share figures, none posting a figure better than 3.2%.

Visitors to Google video sites spent an average of almost 110 minutes per viewer. No other large internet site was above 33 minutes.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

DivX, Inc. (Nasdaq: DIVX), which develops video applications, thought it could succeed in the topsy-turvey web business. So, in late 2006, the company launched Stage6.com.

Well, for the most part, it's not as easy as it looks and now DivX is closing down the site. Interestingly enough, DivX wasn't able to find a buyer for the property.

What happened? Well, I had a chance to interview Chase Norlin, who operates Pixsy (an online search engine). According to him:

"Stage6 likely needed a sugar-daddy to support operations going forward (e.g. acquirer with resources or large capital raise). Given the popularity of the service and the high quality of their streams, they probably had a significant bandwidth bill without the monetization to support that in the short term. Additionally, legal issues around copyrighted material may have added to the decision."

One of my favorite novelists is Robin Cook. He is the pioneer of the medical thriller genre – with perhaps his most well-known title being Coma. In all, he has written 25 NY Times bestsellers.

Now he is moving to the online world. That is, Cook is teaming up with Vuguru, which is Michael Eisner's digital movie studio. Cyber Group Animation is also involved.

Basically, there will be a prequel – on the web and mobile – for Cook's upcoming work, Foreign Body. The debut will be on May 27, 2008. And, yes, I certainly look forward to it.

To get some perspective on all this, I interviewed Chase Norlin, who is the CEO of Pixsy (an online video search company). According to him:

"Perhaps the most notable aspect of this deal is the continued progress of the 'made-for-Internet' programming model, which reflects the inherent cost efficiencies of content production for this medium and the potential for a significant web-wide distribution impact. Tying this into the launch of a new book is a unique Hollywood-esque tie-in that makes a lot of sense."

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) movie network HBO will begin testing an online video service. The new project would allow network subscribers to watch programming on their PCs or download them to watch later. According to The Wall Street Journal, "HBO is starting a trial of the service, called HBO Broadband, in Green Bay, Wis., the network says, and could roll it out more widely later this year."

While HBO's brand is well-known among cable subscribers, it is difficult to predict whether this will translate into a large audience online. The amount of premium content available over the internet is growing rapidly as companies like Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) enter the industry. In a field this crowded, newer competitors may have trouble finding audiences.

HBO does have one distinct advantage. Many of the programs on the network are produced for its viewers and are not available elsewhere. This large amount of original content may draw a substantial audience for the new distribution channel.

But the field is getting crowded.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

So far this year, online video is making a big mark. Just look at the Iowa caucuses, where voters posted their efforts on YouTube and then spread them across social networks like MySpace and Facebook. So what else might we see in 2008 for online video?

Well, I had a chance to interview Chase Norlin, who is the CEO of Pixsy (an online video company). According to him:

1. Expect to see continued enforcement by copyright holders over their online video assets; this will drive wider adoption of DRM and licensing platforms.

2. The online video ad category is growing but not at the pace to support the multitude of companies pursuing this market, and a shakeout is therefore likely.

3. More consolidation in the online video space and all other key internet categories.

4. Continued growth in the semipro video publishing market as content producers create and distribute their material in a more cost-effective manner than traditional outlets.

5. More unique video programming, created for the web, making its way to television.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

I'm definitely looking forward to the "Dexter" finale this weekend. The Showtime Networks series is about a serial killer -- who uses his killing talents to snuff other serial killers.

Yes, it's not a typical show. So, maybe that's why the producers are going to do something creative; that is, they have partnered with Meebo to develop a Web 2.0 experience.

So, Dexter fans can chat -- with AIM, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), MSN and so on -- with executive producers and the talent after the finale.

I had a chance to interview Chase Norlin, who is the CEO of Pixsy (a video search engine), who says:

"This makes perfect sense for Meebo to be in the private label business with instant messaging as the primary application, and certainly seems to be a complement to Showtime Networks' goals. No doubt, video integration into instant messaging applications stands to be a significant trend. Although, in the case of Meebo, I think they will eventually have to offer broader functionality in their private label product in order to win more distribution partners."

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.