According to a report in Light Reading citing industry sources, Nortel is on the prowl for acquisition targets in the IPTV sector to show that they are as serious about IPTV as their competitors are, many of whom have already acquired an IPTV start-up or two. The smart bet is that Nortel will scoop up Minerva, the middleware provider. Nortel's IPTV strategy thus far has been to partner with a number of smaller vendors to create an IPTV ecosystem, but the strategy has yielded few contracts. Nortel's only announced IPTV contract is with Telus for integration services, and the deal includes a piece for Minerva.
Last fall FierceIPTV launched its first annual list of the top emerging companies within the IPTV space, The Fierce 15, and Minerva made the cut. At the time I predicted that Nortel would acquire Minerva in 2007, looks like it may pan out.
For more on Nortel's IPTV strategy:
- check out this article from Light Reading