Digital TV solutions company Tandberg Television found itself as the center of attention in 2007 as a variety of suitors stepped up to the plate to try and acquire Tandberg.
Arris launched what would become a two-horse race with a $1.2 billion bid for Tandberg, which would have fulfilled “Arris’ long-term strategic goal of entering the video market and (would have) immediately established Arris as a market leader,” Arris CEO Bob Stanzione said at the time. However, Arris’ declaration of interest had the impact of bringing Ericsson into the mix, and in February, Ericsson won the battle for Tandberg with a bid of 9.8 billion Swedish krona ($1.5 billion).
Tandberg works with a number of satellite operators to help them efficiently offer the latest TV and interactive services to customers, and by becoming part of the Ericsson Group, Tandberg now is in a much stronger position, says Eric Cooney, CEO of Tandberg.
Tandberg’s two most significant recent wins are in Asia. In September, it announced that Bharti Telemedia, a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Ltd., had chosen Tandberg’s advanced IP headend for the launch of a new direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV service in India. In June, Tandberg won a deal to provide a satellite headend system upgrade to Korean DTH operator Korea Digital Satellite Broadcasting Co. Ltd (SkyLife), which has around to 2 million subscribers in South Korea. Tandberg’s encoders will reduce the bandwidth required to broadcast HDTV, enabling an increased number of channels to be distributed over SkyLife’s satellite network.
Cooney talks with Via Satellite Associate Editor Mark Holmes about the hectic 2007 as well as the opportunities for the company in the satellite arena, and how Tandberg will look to grow revenues in 2008.
Via Satellite: What benefits will Tandberg derive from being part of Ericsson?
Cooney: We decided to put these two companies together because we have a strong belief in the one-plus-one-equals-three benefits. For Tandberg Television the most immediate benefit is in leveraging the scale, global presence and reputation of a technology leader that Ericsson provides. With more than 65,000 staff around the world and 2006 revenues over $27 billion, Ericsson’s market leadership position affords Tandberg Television a level of customer access and credibility to extend and accelerate our own growth plans. As part of the Ericsson Group we are already seeing benefits in terms of our access to customers and our credibility as a prime integrator beyond what we had been able to achieve as a stand-alone supplier.
In turn, and equally important, is the credibility Ericsson has attained through the addition of Tandberg Television and our digital video industry leadership. Prior to the acquisition, Ericsson was a leading supplier of technologies and services to enable voice and data traffic primarily for the world’s telecom operators. With Tandberg Television, the Ericsson Group has successfully expanded its technology offering to include voice, data and video solutions but also extended their addressable markets to include satellite, cable, terrestrial and broadcast TV operators.
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