VC/M&A

SureWest adds channels, plans growth

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:15:03 -0400

Independent teclo SureWest Communications said earlier this month that it is adding 18 new high-definition channels in its Kansas City market, the property that came to SureWest via its acquisition of Everest Broadband. The telco also said it is planning for its service to reach 10,000 more homes in the area by the end of this year, an expansion that will include communities in both Missouri and Kansas.

While major telcos and cable TV companies have entered an HD arms race as they continue to pile up HD channels, small telcos and cable TV companies are starting to ramp up HD efforts as well. SureWest's announcement came shortly after cable TV player RCN announced an HD channel expansion in its New York market.

For more:
- read this story at Xchange
- see this post at HD-report

Related articles:
SureWest saw its first quarter numbers jump after the Everest acquisition. SureWest report
SureWest also offers a home monitoring service. SureWest report

Eagle Broadband IPTV, broadband assets set for sale

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:43:12 -0400

Eagle Broadband's plans to sell its Miami-based IPTV business and its Houston area fiber broadband network are looking to move forward this week, with the Texas court overseeing Eagle's bankruptcy likely to allow the separate sales to move forward. Canadian carrier Interworld Telecommunications will buy the IPTV business for about $700,000, while Broadweave Networks, which snapped up the financially-troubled iProvo network recently, will acquire Eagle's Houston fiber-to-the-premises network for about $280,000.

The IPTV headend in Miami reportedly is worth almost $1.2 million. Brian Morrow, Eagle's chief operating officer, told Telephony that the motion for the sales likely would be heard in bankruptcy court tomorrow.

Eagle's story--or at least part of it--is of a company that was primarily involved in the telecom equipment and satellite markets, but decided to give broadband and bundled telecom services a go about five years ago.

For more:
- see this story at Telephony

Related articles:
Eagle Broadband's IPTV business was looking good back in 2006. Eagle Broadband report
Broadweave announced the iProvo deal in May. Broadweave report
Provo worried Broadweave can't handle the deal. Provo report

UTStarcom PCD sale tightens IPTV focus

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 23:03:32 -0400

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 at Telecommunications

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

Comstar to buy Ural with eye on IPTV

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:24:08 -0400

Russian telco Comstar United TeleSystems has agreed to acquire the parent firm of Ural Telephone Company (UTC), an alternative telco in Russia's Ural Federal District, for $43.3 million. The deal brings Comstar 61,000 new customers, and is the latest in a string of acquisitions that also included the recent buys of Digital Telephone Networks and Interlink Group.

Comstar already offers IPTV and related services in some regions of Russia, and the company said UTC will soon offer IPTV and expand its broadband service offerings.

For more:
- read this story at Total Telecom

Related articles:
Russia's Corbina Telecom has been aiming for an IPTV launch Corbina report
Pay TV may still be strong in Russia as IPTV finds its footing Pay TV report

IPTV consolidation: Espial to acquire Kasenna

Dan O'Shea — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:29:35 -0400

Canadian IPTV middleware vendor Espial Group said it will acquire Kasenna, a competitor based in Sunnyvale, Calif., in a move that will aid consolidation in the fragmented IPTV middleware sector. The $6.5 million deal likely will close later this month.

According to Espial, the combined company will have more than 100 service provider customers supporting about 2.4 million IPTV customers. Kasenna customers include Cavalier Telephone, CenturyTel, FastWeb, Kentucky Telephone, SaskTel, Tennessee Telephone, Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications and Knology.

The IPTV middleware market also includes companies such as Minerva Networks, Innovate Systems, Quative, Thomson, Nokia Siemens Networks and many others, though some service providers also have opted to test or use their own middleware, which has made the landscape even more competitive and fragmented.

For more:
- see this report at Multichannel News

Related articles:
IPTV middleware vendors have chased opportunities at independent telcos IPTV middleware report
IPTV middleware problems reportedly delayed some carriers this spring IPTV middleware report

Iliad makes of move on Alice, with TI's blessing

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 23:11:32 -0400

French broadband service provider Iliad is engaging in exclusive negotiations to acquire Telecom Italia's French network business, Liberty Surf Group SAS, aslo known as Alice France, for about $1.3 billion. Telecom Italia's is in the midst of a restructuring and recovery process, so the negtiations do not come as much of a surprise, though TI reportedly had been looking to sell for a while and had drawn interest from a number of parties.

The acquisition would give Iliad, which operates the Freebox TV service in the tightly-competitive French market, a larger base of new potential TV customers. Iliad currently is considered the third-ranked broadband service provider in France behind France Telecom and Neuf Cegetel.

For more:
- read this story at Light Reading

Related articles:
IPTV players worth watching IPTV report
Telecom Italia also is facing more IPTV competition back home. Telecom Italia report

Vodafone reportedly set to bid for Tiscali

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 08:34:17 -0400

Mobile carrier Vodafone is nearing a bid to acquire Italian broadband service provider Tiscali, according to several published reports out of the U.K. today. Tiscali has been trying to sell off some of its properties, including IPTV operations in Italy and in the U.K. market. Fellow Italian service provider FastWeb reportedly had been considered a candidate to acquire the assets in the U.K., but FastWeb owner Swisscom denied that interest. What Swisscom had not decided yet was whether or not it to make a bid for Tiscali's home market IPTV properties in Italy.

Is the Vodafone bid imminent? Will Swisscom and FastWeb still try to get into the mix to stop Vodafone from building a stronger base in Italy? We could presume that most of Vodafone's interest lies in Tiscali's U.K. group, but Vodafone also already owns Tele2 operations in Italy, and if it buys all of Tiscali, it could become a competitive wireline broadband powerhouse there.

For more:
- read this report from the U.K.'s The Press Association
- see this story at IPTV News

Related articles:
Tiscali losses shrink, so does list of bidders Tiscali report
Tiscali merged with U.K. HomeChoice almost two years ago Tiscali report

Onstream to acquire content management firm Narrowstep

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 08:17:54 -0400

Internet video service provider Onstream Media has agreed to acquire IPTV platform supplier and Microsoft partner Narrowstep in a stock-based deal. Narrowstep's telvOS platform provides content management, distribution and monetization functions, as well as digital rights management. The solution has been deployed by Telefonica and other IPTV and Internet video companies. Meanwhile, Onstream's carrier connections include a partnership with Qwest Communications. The Pompano Beach, Fla. company also reported in recent fiscal second quarter earning that its webcasting business was surging.

For more:
- check out this coverage at IPTV News

Related article:
Narrowstep was one of 2007's top Online Video VC deals Narrowstep report

KIT digital completes Kamera acquisition

Dan O'Shea — Fri, 23 May 2008 16:37:10 -0400

Remember "Startup.com," the 2001 (yes, that long ago) movie that tracked that rapid rise and fall of govWorks.com? Kaleil Isaza Tuzman, the face and money-man of govWorks and head of KIT Capital, has been busy in the IPTV/mobile video packaging arena of late. KIT Capital invested in and renamed ROO Group, an IPTV content packager and distributor, with the moniker KIT digital. Tuzman became CEO of KIt digital back in January, and the company has since announced two acquisitions, new partnerships, business model changes and new financing. Just last week, KIT digital said it completed the previously announced acquisition of content distributor Kamera Content.

Sweden-based Kamera brings KIT digital key relationships with IPTV and mobile video carriers in Europe and Asia. The completion of the deal came weeks after KIT had announced a $5 million investment from KIT Capital and then a $15 million infusion from a mix of investors. KIT also recently announced partnerships with peer-to-peer content streaming firms Pando Networks and Abacast after doing away with its own P2P strategy.

For more:
- see news about the Kamera deal at Digital Media Wire
- read this interview with Tuzman at NewTeeVee

Related article:
- Roo Group signs LOI to acquire Kamera Content Roo release

Amino acquires BT baby Assethouse

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 08:43:02 -0400

U.K. vendor Amino Technologies is acquiring fellow Brit firm Assethouse Technologies, the on-demand content management and delivery company that sprang forth from BT's Colchester video-on-demand trial during the late 1990s. The company had been owned by BT and LMS Capital, and Amino will pay just over $2.7 million in cash for it.

But, here's the kicker: Amino also is hiring Andrew Burke, the former BT executive behind the telco's BT Vision IPTV service, as its new CEO. Burke was CEO of BT Entertainment from 2004 to 2006, and actually left the company before BT launched the IPTV service whose development he led. At the time, it was believed Burke and others at BT were in a spat over the future role BT would play in the TV business.

The acquisition by set-top box company Amino of an on-demand content engine could help Amino help service providers make sense of the dizzying array of video content now available.

For more:
- see this report at IPTV News

Related articles:
Amino Technologies joined the Open IPTV Forum earlier this year Amino Technologies report
Synergy sees IPTV gear spending up Synergy report