Xperi, the owner of digital TV storage software pioneer TiVo, has bought Vewd Software of Norway in a $109m deal ahead of a split into separate IP and product business later this year.
Vewd is a leading supplier of streaming software for connected TVs with over 450m devices, while video-on-demand and set top box pioneer TiVo merged with technology licensing firm Xperi in 2020. The set top box market has been overtaken by smart TVs and streaming services.
The Vewd deal adds 275 staff to Xperi, which is the largest the largest independent provider of Smart TV middleware globally, and gives access to 15m European devices for its TiVO+ service and to a key automotive product.
Vewd for Automotive is a white-labeled, cloud-managed content aggregation service that has been integrated with Renesas’ R-Car H3e and R-Car M3e system on chips.
“We’re excited to collaborate with Vewd on making in-car streaming entertainment more easily accessible. Combining our R-Car SoCs with Vewd for Automotive reduces product development time, speeds up time to market for our customers, and provides intuitive and better driving experiences for end users,” said Yusuke Kawasaki, director of Easy-to-Start department, automotive digital products marketing division at Renesas.
Available for both Android and Linux-based IVI systems, Vewd for Automotive helps OEMs to manage content rights based on geography, brand, model, and user profile. The software is configurable in the cloud and manages the whole media pipeline, simplifying rights acquisition from the different actors in the content supply chain.
Vewd Software was founded in Oslo in 2002 and has its main offices in Norway, Sweden, Taiwan and Poland, and is an independent OTT software provider for Smart TV makers, connected car and video-over-broadband operators. Over 450 million connected TV devices have shipped with Vewd Smart TV Solutions from customers that include Amazon, Commscope, Hisense, Nintendo, Sagemcom, Skyworth, Sony, Swisscom, TCL, TPV Phillips and Vestel.
“Xperi’s TiVo product offerings, when integrated with Vewd’s suite of streaming platform solutions, will help accelerate and scale the deployment of TiVo OS for connected TVs and expand our video-over-broadband offerings,” said Jon Kirchner, chief executive officer of Xperi. “Vewd’s global reach and expertise in providing support to content owners, TV OEMs, and SoC partners as they deploy middleware and OS solutions across various devices is tremendously valuable and further paves the way for additional monetization opportunities as we expand our global footprint of streaming devices.”
“The acquisition of Vewd also strengthens the growth outlook of our product business as we prepare to separate our IP and product businesses this fall. We expect incremental revenue of $10 million in the second half of this year, followed by substantially higher revenue and a positive EBITDA contribution in 2023,” added Kirchner.
“We’re excited to join the Xperi family and look forward to combining the experience, skills and scale of both organizations to deliver new innovations for our clients. Together, we’re set to deliver more engaging experiences to the millions of viewers globally who enjoy TV shows, sports, and the movies they love through our platform,” said Aneesh Rajaram, Vewd’s chief executive officer.
The Vewd management team will continue to lead the business and will be integrated into Xperi’s management structure.
www.xperi.com; www.vewd.com
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