Cisco Will Acquire NDS Group
Cisco announced today that it will acquire NDS Group, a move made primarily to enhance Cisco's Videoscape platform. Cisco is paying roughly $5 billion for the company, a price that includes assumed debt, as well as retention payouts to keep NDS's existing team in place.
Cisco's Videoscape is a standards-based platform that's central to the company's video strategy, delivering mobile and social experiences for viewers while allowing content owners to protect their properties. Cisco will gain NDS's end-user video client, as well as content security offerings, in the acquisition.
The acquisition will also expand Cisco's reach in the service provider market, letting the company expand into growing markets such as India and China. NDS is already established in both countries.
"Cisco and NDS are helping drive the transition that will enable service providers and media companies to offer new revenue-generating video experiences. NDS's open software video platform and services are highly complementary to Cisco technology," said Dr. Abe Peled, executive chairman of NDS. "A key component of NDS's success has been our open software and services model, working with a wide range of set-top box manufacturers to enable greater choice for our customers; following this acquisition this strategy will continue and expand the choice of hardware solutions available to service providers worldwide."
The deal will likely close in the last half of 2012.