Streaming Media - 2008 Industry Sourcebook - (Page 53) streamticker 2007 Acquisitions, Mergers, and Major Plays in the Year of HD and P2P by Tim Siglin h, for the simpler times of 2006. That was an era in streaming when alliances were formed and pawns moved into position. Battle lines had not yet been drawn, and the hype hadn’t quite reached 1999 levels. What a difference a mere 12 months makes. The declaration last year that 2007 was going to be the year of legitimate peer-to-peer networking and high-definition streaming proved accurate, as both got off to a robust start in 2007. But the bigger news was that the “big kids” got involved in the streaming space in a way that left some smaller companies in awe of their larger siblings’ ability to notch up the rhetoric and the market cap to a level that many in streaming had only dreamed of. In some ways, the streaming industry’s not too different from the late-2007 presidential primary jockeying in Iowa and New Hampshire: big names, upstarts, and those in between saw the rising tide float many boats, some toward the open sea and some into the safe harbor of a merger or acquisition. Let’s explore some of the key acquisitions, mergers, and major plays of 2007. o The Big Kids Come to Town John Chambers has made no bones about his intent to make video a cornerstone of Cisco’s growth. Cisco wasn’t the only data or telecom company to move into the space. From Juniper and Level 3 to Ericsson and Nokia, the big kids set their sights on streaming and video delivery. Ericsson started off the year with an announcement that it was acquiring Redback Networks, a company that managed wireline DSL connections for 15 global DSL carriers. The deal, worth approximately $2.1 billion, put Redback and its portfolio of almost 50 million DSL end users in a leverage position for Ericsson, which was keen on Redback’s reputation for VoIP IPTV, and , on-demand video services. The acquisition put Ericsson in direct competition with two of its partners, Cisco and Juniper, both of which made IPTV and VoIP prime target verticals for the 2007 earnings year. Ericsson didn’t just want Redback, though—its acquisition of Redback created a working laboratory for Alan Lippman, Ph.D., who joined Redback as chief video architect. Lippman is best WWW.STREAMINGMEDIA.COM 53 industry update http://WWW.STREAMINGMEDIA.COM
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