Cisco buys Kiss Technologies

Cisco looking to bluster entertainment arm

22 July 2005 16:31 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Cisco has strengthened its entertainment arm further with the announcement that it has bought Kiss Technologies, the company who earlier this year launched a PVR controlled by a remote control (see here).

Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco will pay approximately $61 million in cash and stock in exchange for all shares of KiSS Technology.

“As more and more entertainment content is delivered over the Internet and as consumers demand access to digital entertainment inside and outside of their home networks, networked entertainment devices will become an integral part of Consumer Electronics,” said Charles Giancarlo, Cisco Chief Technology Officer and Cisco-Linksys president. “KiSS has emerged as a leader in networked video and audio products in Europe and we hope to use that expertise to expand worldwide.”

According to In-Stat, a leading market research firm, the networked entertainment market had reached $3.9 billion in revenue world wide at the end of 2004 and is expected to grow to $16.1 billion by 2009. In-Stat also estimates that networked entertainment devices will be in use on more than 38% of home networks by the same period.

Upon close of the acquisition, the KiSS team will be integrated into Linksys.