With its mobile phone fortunes looking bleak, Motorola has turned its eyes to the online video industry, saying it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire BitBand, an Israeli content management and delivery company. Terms were not announced, but reports say the privately-held company had been shopping itself to potential buyers for between $4 billion and $5 million.
BitBand has a solid business as a cross platform video content delivery network solutions provider, and specializes in the management of content across all networks for three screen delivery. Its solutions are targeted at large-scale deployment and optimized for hybrid and distributed network architectures. It currently works with some 60 operators in Europe.
Motorola said the company would become part of its Broadband Home Solutions division, which makes set-top cable boxes and wireless networking equipment, and includes the Adaptive Media Management framework for content management and high-performance streaming servers for centralized and edge-based on demand networks. BitBand's expertise extends to CDN solutions and Over-the-Top video services.
"Motorola is committed to investing in our video infrastructure solutions as our customers evolve their networks to handle the explosion in consumer demand for video," said John Burke, senior vice president and general manager, Broadband Home Solutions, part of the Motorola Home & Networks Mobility business. "BitBand has a leading share in IPTV video on demand and a strong base in Europe that we plan to leverage as we continue growing our infrastructure business in the EMEA region."
Motorola, which saw a quick spike in its share price after the news was released this morning, said it expects to close the sale this quarter.
For more:
- see this release