Laura Martin, CFA

Managing Director, Needham & Company, LLC

Senior Equity Analyst: Entertainment & Internet

Laura Martin received her BA from Stanford, her MBA from Harvard Business School, and she is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). Martin began her career at Drexel Burnham Lambert in media investment banking, followed by Capital Research & Management, where she advised $100 billion and managed a $500 million portfolio of media stocks. She moved to Credit Suisse First Boston in 1994 as the senior media analyst where she was nationally ranked by Institutional Investor between 1999 and 2001. In 2002, Martin moved to Paris to become EVP of Financial Strategy and Investor Relations for Vivendi Universal. In 2004, she founded Media Metrics, LLC publishing equity research on the largest entertainment, cable and Internet stocks in the U.S., where she was nationally ranked as “Best of the Independent Research Boutiques” by Institutional Investor for many years. In 2009, Martin moved to Needham & Company, LLC, where she publishes research on the largest Internet and Entertainment companies. Martin also provides speaking, expert testimony, and valuation consulting services through Capital Knowledge (www.CapKnowledge.com).

Join Laura at the 2016 Multiscreen Summit, where she will be delivering the opening keynote.

Keynote Description: One of the sharpest analysts covering media and entertainment, Needham & Co.’s Laura Martin will talk about why media stocks lost billions of dollars of market cap in 2015 and what’s driving their valuations in 2016. By analyzing trends in viewing, devices, economics, new online competitors and other factors, she will set the tone for rest of the day, using data and economics to highlight opportunities and challenges for Internet and media competitors as they follow consumers across multiple screens. Martin will make a compelling case on why the Future of TV demands fully exploiting both linear and online opportunities, and why the most valuable content companies are those with multiple revenue streams that embrace immersive content across all screens.