Cisco Systems has closed its $5 billion acquisition of NDS Group, a week after getting final approval for the deal from European antitrust regulators.
The networking giant is looking to NDS to help bolster its ambitions in the booming video space, with the company’s technology expected to help drive the delivering and adoption of Cisco’s Videoscape service, which enables consumers to find and watch pay TV content, not only on their televisions but also PCs and mobile devices.
Cisco announced the completion of the acquisition July 31.
Company executives are looking to become a dominant presence in the video delivery market, which they have said will grow fourfold in the next three years.
“Simply put, almost everyone loves video,” Jesper Andersen, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco’s Service Provider Video Technology Group, said in a July 31 post on the Cisco Blog site. “The video entertainment industry is in the midst of a major market transition, with consumers demanding high quality video experiences that are inherently more immersive, engaging, mobile, and social. This creates great opportunities for Cisco and our service provider customers, as we partner together to deliver next-generation video experiences to subscribers worldwide.”
Cisco officials announced the bid for NDS Group in March. The British company, partially owned by News Corp., develops video software and security solutions that enable service providers and media companies to bring video to a host of devices, from traditional televisions and PCs to smartphones and tablets. NDS counts many major service providers and media companies–including Cablevision and DirectTV–as customers, both in the United States and overseas.
To read the original eWeek article, click here: Cisco Completes $5 Billion Deal for NDS, Bolsters Video Efforts