Microsoft may sell its Mediaroom IPTV package to Ericsson, according to a Bloomberg report on Wednesday.
The report quotes unnamed “people with knowledge of the matter” as saying the two companies are in talks over the potential sale. Neither company would comment on the report when I asked them today, but the idea of the sale is perfectly plausible.
Mediaroom is a customizable platform that is mostly bundled by telcos, who want to take on more traditional TV service providers with their broadband services — customers include AT&T, Deutsche Telekom and Telus. As it also comes with DVR capabilities, Mediaroom is in some ways a competitor to TiVo .
According to Bloomberg’s source, Microsoft wants to focus more on delivering IPTV through its Xbox consoles. Swedish networking equipment vendor Ericsson, meanwhile, is all about servicing its telco customers, so the addition of Mediaroom to its lineup would make a lot of sense. The company could integrate the software with its existing IPTV managed services and systems integration portfolio – in February, Ericsson said it had signed 240 IPTV contracts with various service providers.
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