Cisco to Spend $95 Million Acquiring Streaming Video Company

Posted 02/07/2011 at 8:04am | by Paul Lilly

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With 4G broadband rolling out into more territories and front-facing cameras found on an increasing number of mobile devices, the smart money might be on streaming video. Perhaps recognizing the writing that's on the wall, Cisco announced its intent to acquire privately-held Inlet Technologies, a provider of Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) digital media processing platforms. Cisco's intent here is to strengthen the capabilities of its Videoscape TV platform.

"Service and content providers have a tremendous opportunity to deliver exciting video experiences as media consumption increases across mobile, desktop, and smart devices," said Enrique Rodriguez, senior vice president and general manager, Cisco's Service Provider Video Technology Group. "Cisco's Videoscape platform will play a key role in reinventing the TV experience, and the acquisition of Inlet will enable our customers to leverage the network as a platform to deliver innovative video experiences to consumers on any device."

Under terms of the deal, Cisco will fork over around $95 million in case and retention-based incentives for Inlet. Barring any unforeseen snags, the deal is expected to close in the first half of the year.