Microsoft sells Mediaroom to Ericsson

Microsoft have announced that they are selling their IPTV business Mediaroom to Ericsson. Mediaroom is an IPTV solution for cable operators to use as front end for pay TV services and was developed by the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. We have been following Mediaroom here on TDL for a few years (see my video demo from CES 2010) and in January 2011 I wrote a post says Microsoft should ditch Mediaroom in favour of Windows Media Center. At the time for me it didn’t make sense for Microsoft to have competing products (Mediaroom v Windows Embedded Set Top Boxes) and it looks like I was partly right as Microsoft have sold off Mediaroom but not to focus on Windows Media Center Embedded as I suggested but to concentrate on the Xbox. It’s not really going to effect any users but its another part of the story of Microsoft’s focusing on the Xbox and other products like Media Center being left behind.

Here is the press release from Microsoft:

The following is a post from Yusuf Mehdi, Corporate Vice President of Marketing, Strategy and Business for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft.

Today, Microsoft and Ericsson announced a definitive agreement for Ericsson to acquire Mediaroom, the number one IPTV platform deployed by TV operators around the world. This acquisition is mutually beneficial and strategically aligned for both parties. Ericsson will continue to invest in the growth and success of Mediaroom to the benefit of customers, employees, and the industry. It allows Microsoft to commit 100 percent of its focus on consumer TV strategy with Xbox.

We are proud of the world-class engineering and business achievements within Mediaroom. They have a rich history of driving innovation in IPTV. As early pioneers, they built the infrastructure to stream video on limited bandwidth, and today they enable multiscreen entertainment experiences for pay TV subscribers. Mediaroom has contributed to the evolution of TV and powers 22 million set-top boxes today in 11 million subscriber households.

With the sale of Mediaroom, Microsoft is dedicating all TV resources to Xbox in a continued mission to make it the premium entertainment service that delivers all the games and entertainment consumers want – whether on a console, phone, PC or tablet. And with 76 million Xbox 360 consoles around the world with 46 million Xbox LIVE members, it is a mission that gets us out of bed in the morning.

It is not a mission that we can achieve alone. We want to partner with the industry to deliver the next wave of innovation in games and consumer entertainment. We will partner with content creators, studios, labels, networks, content aggregators, operators and distributors to make this happen. We believe the future of home entertainment is one where TV becomes more simple, tailored and intelligent. We believe the best is yet to come for this industry.

Our vision and energy for the future of entertainment is more focused than ever. Stay tuned.