SeaChange International (Nasdaq: SEAC), which has been pretty busy lately shedding business units, went to market and actually acquired the assets, intellectual property (including source code) and employees of Flashlight Engineering and Consulting.
The acquisition is expected to help SeaChange navigate through the nooks and crannies of multiscreen delivery and consumer electronics, digital video and interactive TV.
"Flashlight has worked across the spectrum of ITV software, from drivers to applications and from Web services to set-top boxed and mobile devices. Every major cable operator in the U.S. is using software developed by Flashlight engineers and their expertise ties in nicely with our software development and deployments with all the major cable operators in the Americas and Europe," said Shiva Patibanda, general manager of SeaChange's In-Home business unit.
As part of the deal, Acton-Mass.-based SeaChange is setting up a Portland, Ore., business unit for the 20 Flashlight employees, including company president-CEO Eric Miller, who becomes vice president of engineering at SeaChange. The Flashlight group will report to Patibanda.
SeaChange, of course, used the news release to offer the obligatory mention of the synergy that exist between the two companies, noting that "Flashlight architects, along with SeaChange architects, have been contributing to the primary industry standards for consumer electronics, digital video and interactive TV software. These standards drive today's software development environments for DVDs, digital cable, IPTV and DBS systems."
Beyond that, the purchase reflects "the research and development investments we are making to accelerate the delivery of our next generation software solutions and develop new revenue streams," SeaChange CFO Mike Bornak said.
For more:
- see the SeaChange release
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