Tandberg deal reflects videoconferencing growth
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(InfoWorld) - A rising tide lifts all boats, and in the world of videoconferencing, Cisco Systems' high-profile TelePresence products are boosting the market as a whole. Longtime player Tandberg is trying to make the most of the good times. In the latest move for market position, Tandberg said Thursday it plans to acquire privately held Codian, a maker of back-end infrastructure for other vendors' conferencing endpoints. The 107-employee company, based in Slough, U.K., will help Tandberg grab sales and develop new products faster as well as go after new opportunities in the IP communications market, Tandberg said. It expects the $270 million deal to close in the third quarter. Cisco's TelePresence, introduced late last year, was practically all Cisco executives would talk about when they met with financial analysts this week, and with good reason: The technology costs up to $300,000 per location and requires special design and installation work, but it looks and sounds great. Using it has already slashed Cisco's travel costs, Chairman and CEO John Chambers said. The marketing effort Cisco has been pouring into TelePresence has raised the profile of other telepresence systems, such as Hewlett-Packard's Halo and Teliris's VirtuaLive. These systems bring videoconferencing, traditionally complicated and low quality, to another level. In turn, they have put the spotlight on improvements in midrange videoconferencing systems that now feature high-definition cameras and displays and better sound. "The attention has done more for HD videoconferencing than for telepresence," she said. "The price tag (on telepresence) is still prohibitive for most enterprises." Whereas telepresence usually involves designing a whole room for a particular system, which can even include special furniture and room modifications, midrange high-definition videoconferencing may be installed in an existing conference room or as upgraded components to an existing system, IDC's Freedman said. These systems can be deployed for a fraction of the cost of telepresence. Codian makes back-end infrastructure for conferencing systems, including MCUs (multipoint control units), gateways, content servers, and management software, Tandberg said. Tandberg pledged to continue developing and supporting both its own and Codian's product lines even though both companies make, for example, MCUs. Tandberg, based in Oslo, is already working with HP to let users hook up its high-definition desktop videoconferencing systems with Halo conference rooms. Although the telepresence market is still a "corporate jet replacement" for top-level executives, the market isn't standing still, Freedman said. IDC estimated telepresence sales worldwide were just $64 million in 2006, but believes they will rise to $170 million this year and to $1 billion by 2011. Polycom, which makes a broad range of conferencing products including a telepresence system, moved to grab more of that market early this year when it acquired Destiny Conferencing for $47.6 million. The 27-employee company was already supplying core technology for Polycom's RPX telepresence product and held several patents in the area.
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The deal, for $17.50 per share, continues a recent trend of networking and telecommunications firms being bought by private equity firms.
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(Source: AT&T)  AT&T IP Videoconferencing services can ease the transition, while lowering cost and enabling a high-quality user-experience. IP Videoconferencing and the AT&T MPLS-based network deliver a clear picture and a more reliable connection then the Internet.
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After decades of relative peace and separation, friction is growing as cable providers sell more phone lines and phone companies get into the video business.
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The video rental chain gives one high-def platform a needed boost.
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Long-range wireless networking technology draws market interest as low-cost service.
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InfoWorld - In a move to beef up its expertise in Internet-based TV technology, Sweden&#39;s Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson has made an unsolicited offer to acquire Tandberg Television of Norway.
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Ziff Davis - Industry analysts say there are many pluses to BT buying Infonet Services, including giving BT more resources to be a more effective global networking player.
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Video conferencing vendor Tandberg plans to purchase tape storage systems manufacturer Exabyte for about $28 million, leaving the industry with one less independent manufacturer of tape drives.
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ON THE SCENE - Product managers at TechEd 2007 here gave BetaNews an early glimpse of Microsoft's next videoconferencing application, which will tie into both Office Communications Server (which we saw in detail at WinHEC three weeks ago) and Microsoft's own subscription-based conferencing services.
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High-speed connections and software improvements are giving rise to subscription services for music, movies, sports events and talk radio to PC's.
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Niklas Zennstroem, the co-founder of Skype, explains  how the net will shape the emergence of new technologies.
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So far talks between the two revolve around technology and potential business models such as advertising-sponsored services, one of the sources said.
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Broadband services using fiber optic  networks are expected to grow in the coming years with the race  now on among companies to develop this technology, the chairman  of Israel's Alvarion Ltd. ALVR.O said on Tuesday.
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Nonexclusive deal will let them jointly develop and market IT and telecommunications products and services.
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The two companies expand an alliance to bundle DirecTV's service with the telecom provider's own offerings.
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Polycom made several announcements today, including software that puts videoconferencing capability on standard desktops with third-party cameras.