ExtraTorrent | Verizon Will Acquire Intel’s TV Project

[Guest]

Verizon has announced that it would buy Intel’s failed TV business. You may remember that Intel was going to launch a set-top box in cooperation with Verizon, but then the company changed its mind and said it was going to give up and wanted to flog the whole lot off for $500 million.
 

Now Verizon announced that it was going to buy the assets of Intel Media, a division meant to develop “over the top” television services. The amount Verizon has paid remains undisclosed but it is known for sure that the company is getting a large amount of intellectual property related to Intel’s project. The team of developers working on a set-top box included about 350 experts, and Verizon will provide jobs to all of them. Their headquarters will also remain in Santa Clara.

Intel complained that its plans were ruined by difficulties in obtaining the content partnerships it needed for a set-top box. The hopes are that Verizon, which already offers more traditional television services, will manage to make Internet TV work. Apparently, Verizon is going to integrate Intel’s Internet TV tech with its existing video services, as it announced it would “further differentiate the product from traditional cable TV offerings and to reduce ongoing deployment costs”. Moreover, industry observers also expect that this deal will help bring cross-screen watching to LTE devices.

Intel representatives explained that what their TV division was developing was “truly innovative”, but it seems to be better off under Verizon’s wing. Intel also added that the company would further align its focus and resources around a rich computing product portfolio in segments ranging from the “Internet of Things” to data centers.