Cable equipment giant Motorola Inc. has announced that it plans to acquire privately-held Broadbus Technologies Inc., a Boxborough, Mass.-based provider of video-on-demand systems, signaling a move into the server side of the VOD delivery chain.
Broadbus uses a solid-state server architecture and dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), as opposed to traditional hard-disk technology, to store on-demand video and deliver it to multiple devices. The company was founded in 1999 and currently has more than 60 VOD deployments with service providers worldwide, says Motoroloa, including Comcast, Charter Communications and Time Warner Cable. Key Broadbus investors include Battery Ventures, Charles River Ventures, Comcast Interactive Capital and Star Ventures.
"Today, consumers expect to access video entertainment on the different devices they have, inside and outside of their home, in varying formats – and to have it available upon request," said Dan Moloney, President, Motorola Connected Home Solutions, in a statement. "The addition of Broadbus Technologies will bring Motorola’s video delivery platform one step closer to enabling this vision of seamless mobility by providing us with field-proven content management and delivery solutions. Service providers will be able to take advantage of a complete end-to-end seamless video experience enabled by Motorola technology to extend their customer relationships."
Financial terms of the transaction, which is expected to close in the third quarter, were not disclosed.
