The Swedish vendor claims the deal will make it the leading provider of IPTV and multi-screen solutions, giving it a total of over 25% of the global market.
Mediaroom’s software is used by AT&T U-verse, Deutsche Telekom’s Entertain, Telefonica, TELUS Optik TV and Swisscom with Microsoft said to be refocusing their TV offering through its Xbox games console.
The Financial Times reports that the acquisition was valued at around $150 million.
The deal is set to be concluded by the second half of 2013 as Ericsson looks to capitalise on “the ever changing behaviours of TV consumers”.
The global IPTV market is estimated to reach 76 million subscribers during 2013. Ericsson’s SVP for business unit support solutions, Per Borgklint, has hopes of the deal helping Ericsson tap into a growing network which will support billions of devices in the future.
"Ericsson's vision of the Networked Society foresees 50 billion devices to be connected via broadband, mobility and cloud,” said Borgklint. “Future video distribution will have a similar impact on consumer behaviour and consumption as mobile voice has had.”
Tom Gibbons, corporate vice president of Microsoft Corporation, said: “Ericsson is positioned to be a valuable strategic partner for operators and TV service providers around the world as the IPTV market evolves.
“Ericsson's complementary portfolio of TV and networking services will help drive the future growth and development of Mediaroom.”
