When previous Cisco CEO John Chambers announced at the beginning of the year that he’s be betting big on the Internet of Things (and specifically, in France) this probably isn’t what he meant. The newly arrived Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins announced that Technicolor SA will pay $600 Million to acquire Cisco’s set-top box & connected home business, a business that Chambers acquired 10 years ago in a $6.9 Billion acquisition of Scientific-Atlantic.
As reported by WSJ, The sale is part of a greater move by Cisco to shed itself of what it considers to be auxiliary business lines, while focusing investments in cloud services, where Cisco sees its future.
How will Technicolor reinvent itself in the next 100 years?
100 years ago, Technicolor brought us bright the yellow bricks that Dorothy followed to Oz – or at least, the ability to view those colors on our TV. Today, while entertainment services & its historical business still provide a large, stable revenue source for Technicolor – licensing, visual effects services, etc. – Technicolor is making a huge push into the Connected Home. Their vision for the future undoubtedly revolves around the Television as the central hub, and the acquisition of Cisco’s OTT business doubles down on that vision.
Technicolor announced earlier this year that they had already shipped over 200 million Set-top boxes.