NDS on the chopping block

Yep, NDS' for sale - source and article below:

"Cisco Looking to Sell Video-Software Unit NDS at Steep Discount"

Six years after shelling out $5 billion for NDS, Cisco is now putting a $1 billion price tag on the Jerusalem-based business, which mainly develops software for the pay TV industry

Meir Orbach 09:37 18.01.18

Cisco Systems is looking to sell its video software unit NDS Group Ltd., three people familiar with the matter who spoke on conditions of anonymity told Calcalist. In November Bloomberg first reported that Cisco is looking to sell the unit.

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Several private equity funds are currently negotiating a possible acquisition at a sum of around $1 billion, one of these people said. Silver Lake Partners, a Menlo Park, California-headquartered firm with around $39 billion in assets under management, is looking into the deal, this person said.

Cisco declined to comment.

Silver Lake has been approached for comment but has yet to respond.

Cisco bought Jerusalem-based NDS in 2012, paying around $5 billion and merging it into its Cisco Videoscape division. NDS mainly develops software for the pay TV industry, a segment that has been under increasing pressure as subscription video-on-demand services like Netflix gained popularity. The competition resulted in Videoscape experiencing dwindling revenues since 2014, leading Cisco to sell its connected-device unit in 2015.

NDS was founded in 1988 as News Datacom by several scientists in collaboration with Israel-based Weizmann Institute of Science. The company was listed for a decade on Nasdaq before it was acquired in 2009 for $3.6 billion by London-based private equity firm Permira and News Corporation.

Source: https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3729918,00.html

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16 replies (most recent on top)

@RibzLvr-5msh

Yes, LWR is being moved to Morehouse College in SW Atlanta. Enjoy the neighborhood.

Any news about the fate of Lawrenceville?

NDS employees should be happy getting out of Cisco.

Cisco employees should be happy getting ride of NDS.

Win win.

China DTH is a different story. They send STB to people living far far away from main cities for free. They don't need to subscribe premium packages. As far as I know, the subscriber number is still increasing.

However, I think a massive LR is likely to happen if no one wants to pay 1B.

Absolute max it is worth $400-$500 Million: -

Existing security business falling like a lead balloon. Cash cow customers reaching saturation and pay only incrementally and on MUCH smaller volumes than before (BSkyB, DTV, China DTH to name the top 3) and NO new CA business since Cisco bought it in 2013

Middleware business under invested and hence a non-existent product (InfiniteTV) and unclear on future whether it is Android, InfiniteTV or some horrible franken-hybrid. They have some lovely powerpoints but no real product...

UI/UX business - dead - Head of "Le STUDIO" fired and gone

Tried and failed to implement a "product" oriented business model when all of their customers, old and new, wanted bespoke

Cronyism rife with SeaChange mafia in many positions (yeah look up Seachange sometime and see how successful they are....) and some old Cisco AS blokes basically clueless on the PayTV business and what direction it should take

Customers scared of their commitment to their future and hence all actively looking to get away from this in both CA and MW domains

Apart from that it is awesome - loads of unpaid demos, powerpoints and backslapping all round. New tagline: Redefine|Reorganize|Repackage - and run while we can still get a dime for it

There are/were some great people and great minds working for NDS and this shower of shocking idiots ruined it all. Whoever buys it MUST get rid of this cancer first.

Cisco are putting the $1bn tag on it.. So I imagine that means it is worth a lot less than that..

That smart card business must be worth something though. How much is plastic/ton nowadays?

Shalom NDS

Don't let the for hit you in the head in the way out.

Nah we're safe - who would actually drop a cool $1B with all the webscale guys moving into the space? Ericsson has been shopping their video business for a year with no takers.

I know these threads seem like NDS acquisition mistake overloads, but let's hope it stops Cisco from making such monumental mistakes. You could have set fire to $5bn dollars and acheived more utility!

@RibzLvr-pxr is that you again Chambers?

So, no SPVSS LR before it is sold?

Well, Cisco did deliver a cloud hosted contact cent solution that ate all the customer's scripts. DOes that count?

Hey @RibzLvr-pxr

Tell me what Cisco has provided lately? Infinite Development and Delivery? How about VBO for Verizon, 3 years in the making and finally someone shut it down. SO before you start to fly the Cisco victory flag a-- clown take a look at what Cisco has delivered other than hardware in the last 4 years

Can be sold at 50% discount of the asking price....

Oh if it isn't the crying victims again....

Move on with your life, stop being whiners.

You never had a decent product, never will..

Yes!! Let's start another thread about NDS sale because we can never have enough. rolls eyes

Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

NDS on the chopping block

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