UTStarcom PCD sale tightens IPTV focus

UTStarcom, a vendor that has won numerous IPTV deals in China and elsewhere, is selling its Personal Communications Division for $240 million to a new company formed by investment firm AIG Venture Capital. The deal comes months after UTStarcom announced its intent to focus primarily on IPTV and move away from its mobile businesses (though actually at least three years after the company identified IPTV as its core business).

The company also sold its CDMA unit to Opengate Capital last month as part of the trasition to focus on IPTV. That transition is being driven by Peter Blackmore, who officially became CEO of UTStarcom last week, after it was announced last year that he would succeed previous CEO Hong Liang Lu, who is now executive chairman of the company.

To date, many IPTV vendors with other business interests have been happy to hold onto them, unsure how well this whole IPTV thing would work out. A vendor's willingness to focus on IPTV and little else could be yet another sign that the market has maturing.

For more:
- see this report [1] at Telecommunications

Related articles:
UTStarcom said in 2005 that its core business was IPTV UTStarcom report [2]
UTStarcom announced an IPTV deal with Bharti Airtel last year UTStarcom report [3]