Cisco Thursday confirmed its intent to acquire BNI Video, a privately held maker of video back-office and content delivery network analytics products. BNI's technology will aid Cisco's Videoscape, the home entertainment platform Cisco offers to service providers for delivering video-over-IP networks.
Cisco will pay about $99 million in cash and retention-based incentives, the San Jose, Calif.-based company said. The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of Cisco's fiscal 2012, which begins Nov. 1.
Based in Boxborough, Mass., BNI Video was founded in 2009. Cisco was an early investor, as were both Comcast and Time Warner Cable.
"Service providers globally are embracing our Videoscape vision and today with the acquisition of BNI Video, we are augmenting our Videoscape platform and giving customers a clear migration path to Videoscape," said Marthin De Beer, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's Emerging Business Group, in a statement.
Videoscape officially was launched in January 2011 at CES. Two other recent Cisco acquisitions, an August 2010 pickup of video content management system provider ExtendMedia, and the February 2011 purchase of digital video specialist Inlet Technologies, also supported the Videoscape portfolio.
Video remains a priority for Cisco, although the core management team focused on Videoscape has changed significantly over the past year. Enrique Rodriguez, former senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's Service Provider Video Technology Group, left the company in August. Cisco's various video units -- consumer, enterprise and service provider -- have since been consolidated under De Beer.
