MUMBAI: Pay television technology provider NDS has acquired residential gateways software firm Jungo. Jungo NDS says brings experience in embedded software for home networks and IP service delivery devices.
The acquisition NDS says bolsters its position in the growing broadband television market Jungo's products and expertise further accelerate introduction of new end-to-end solutions for the converging broadcast/broadband market.
Jungo's market presence in major telecom firms will help NDS promote its Synamedia IPTV system offerings.
The acquisition cost $107.5 million in cash This includes $17 million of earn-out payment contingent on the attainment of certain fiscal targets for the 12-month period following completion. The completion of the acquisition is expected to occur during the first calendar quarter of next year.
Jungo's numerous innovations include OpenRG, a complete and integrated middleware software platform for deployment on network devices in the digital home and small office including triple play residential gateways, home/SOHO routers, wireless access points, cable/DSL routers and voice gateways. Jungo's customers are leading residential gateway manufacturers like Actiontec, Cisco, Pirelli, Sagem, Siemens and Westell, who sell their residential gateways to major broadband pay-TV operators such as France Telecom, NTT, Qwest, Telecom Italia, Verizon and others.
Residential gateways, have grown in sophistication, and are increasingly deployed by telcos as the main service termination point in the customer premises for the delivery of a variety of value added services including broadband data, IPTV, voice over internet protocol (VoIP) telephony, video telephony and convergent wireless/wireline telephony. The residential gateway and the software contained in it act as the interface between the broadband network and the various consumer electronic devices that are attached in the home network including IPTV set-top boxes.
The residential gateway plays a key role in controlling the quality and management of the individual services, such as video, data andtelephony. Providing the key underlying software for both the residential gateway and the set-top box will allow NDS to offer a unique solution for an enhanced, optimised and managed video over broadband service. In addition, the collaboration between the two devices in the home network will accelerate the ntroduction of new and innovative convergent services such as enabling the set-top box to access music, video and pictures stored on PCs in the home network, archiving of digital content stored on the DVR and video conferencing via VoIP.
NDS president and CEO Dr Abe Peled said, "The acquisition of Jungo positions NDS to better serve the ever-increasing need of pay-TV and telecom network operators to offer reliable video over broadband services. We are extremely excited about joining forces with the Jungo team to achieve our shared vision of securing and enabling content any time anywhere and on any device. We are of course committed to serving all of Jungo's current customers after the transaction closes, as well as helping the Jungo team expand their market penetration worldwide."
Jungo will continue to operate as a separate unit within NDS under the leadership of the current management team. It will focus its activities on the residential gateway software market while closely collaborating with other NDS business groups to forge stronger relationships with broadband customers and to offer new and innovative end-to-end solutions.
Jungo CEO Ofer Vilenski commented, "This is an exciting time for Broadband. Residential gateways are enabling television, data services, telephony and a host of new services to be delivered over IP networks. Our association with NDS will allow both companies to deliver to consumers new and innovative applications and services. We are delighted about joining NDS, and about the confidence our customers will have using our products, now backed by such an accomplished and innovative company. Jungo's success was made possible by our extremely talented employees, whose expertise and teamwork gave us the ability to define and lead
this market."
Joel Fisch, Director, Intel Capital/Israel, Digital Home Investments and a Jungo investor said, "Following our initial investment, Intel and Jungo joined forces to bring Linux-based solutions to the embedded gateway
market. Jungo and Intel both continue to derive great value from this long-standing relationship which has served both parties well for the past five years. Intel Capital has supported Jungo in its financing rounds and is pleased to see Jungo become part of NDS, a great company with which Intel works closely."
