Cisco Systems will acquire Arroyo Video Solutions, a privately-held company specialising in video-on-demand and related services, for $92 million in cash. The plan is to integrate the Arroyo platform into the Cisco IP-NGN next generation network architecture to provide interactive media services.
Arroyo provides video networking software for personalised television services. The company was founded in 2002 and has 44 staff based in California and Utah. Among the team joining Cisco are an original founder of Novell networks and a former chief technology officer at 3Com. They will be integrated into the Cisco cable and video initiatives group.
“The entertainment industry is going through a major shift while consumer desire for personalized on-demand service is on the rise,” said Michelangelo Volpi of the service provider division in Cisco.
“The industry is quickly evolving from pure video-on demand to anything-on-demand with any content delivered to any end device. Cisco’s next generation network strategy offers service providers the ability to make this vision a reality,” he said. “With the addition of Arroyo’s innovative software, which offers flexibility in content delivery, service providers will be in a position to serve content how, when and where consumers want it.”
The news was announced on the same day that Harmonic agreed to acquire Entone, another provider of video-on-demand and network video systems.