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Motorola to buy Israel's BitBand
17 November 2009
Motorola is to buy video-on-demand company Bitband to merge with the home networks business that it is planning to split off or sell
Comment: An interesting way to spend money considering that only days ago Motorola revived its plan to split or sell the company in three parts, of which the unit BitBand is to join would be one. It could be a need to put the group into a better state for a sale, or an opportunity that was too good to miss, especially as M&As are back.
Motorola will acquire BitBand, an Israeli video-on-demand technology provider, to expand its home video business. The company did not disclose the terms of the deal.
The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2009 and is subject to customary closing conditions.
BitBand will be integrated into Motorola's home and networks mobility business, which Motorola is planning to sell for $4-$5 billion.
The acquisition of BitBand will increase the company's existing on-demand product line, including the adaptive media management framework for content management and high-performance streaming servers for centralised and edge-based on-demand networks.
BitBand has over 60 commercial IPTV deployments globally, including Tele2 in the Netherlands, Fastweb in Italy and Swyazinvest in Russia. GTB
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