May 26, 2009

ActiveVideo Acquires Avinity

ActiveVideo Networks has reached an agreement to acquire Avinity Systems BV. The transaction, which was announced at the ANGA Cable Show, is intended to strengthen ActiveVideo Networks' technology and application offerings and expand its presence in the market for delivery of cloud-based services to television. The two companies are expected to have deployed interactive services to more than 5 million homes worldwide by the end of 2009.

Post-acquisition, ActiveVideo Networks will publicly disclose deployments with a variety of service providers, including Oceanic Time Warner Cable and Grande Communications in the United States; Tele2 and Reggefiber in Europe; and PCCW in Hong Kong. In addition, the acquisition is intended to expand ActiveVideo Networks' list of content relationships and middleware and infrastructure integrations.

In conjunction with the acquisition, ActiveVideo's European operations will be relocated to Avinity's headquarters in Hilversum, The Netherlands, near Amsterdam. Ronald Brockmann, director of Avinity, will serve as managing director for ActiveVideo Europe.

In other Avinity news, the company and Neotion have integrated their product offerings to bring advanced applications such as VOD navigation, interactive ads and accessing Web video to TV sets with CI Plus capability, without the need for a separate two-way set-top box.