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VOD Server Company's Back-Office System Was Key to the Deal -- Business Evolving, Buyer Says
Larry Ellison's nCUBE Corp. is cashing out of the crowded video-on-demand server field, agreeing to be sold to C-COR Inc. for $89.5 million.
C-COR executives said the transaction is as much as a software deal as a video-on-demand server deal: nCUBE will be folded into C-COR's software business unit, with nCUBE CEO Michael Pohl assuming duties for that unit.
"The strategic play is really on the software side," said C-COR chief technology officer Ken Wright. "That's really where we've had our sights set and an area where there is a great need in the operator world."
C-COR is putting up $20 million in cash, $35 million in convertible notes and 4.5 million shares of stock, making the deal worth $89.5 million.
C-COR will still sell and support nCUBE's VOD servers, as well as its ad insertion business, Wright said. But the company's software was key to the deal as the VOD business evolves, he said.
"NCUBE has built the most powerful content-on-demand back-office system out there," Wright said. "They really have a best-of-breed solution."
CAME IN LATE
NCUBE entered the VOD server market late, following SeaChange International Inc. and Concurrent Computer Corp., which had the lion's share of deployments in the early part of this decade.
The company has fought to make inroads, and has seen sizable activity at Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications Inc., Mediacom Communications Corp., Bresnan Communications, Shaw Cablesystems Inc. and Adelphia Communications Corp., along with a few systems at Advance/Newhouse Communications, Altrio Communications Inc. and Astound Broadband.
But the company had been shut out at Comcast Corp., Cox Communications Inc., Cablevision Systems Corp. and Insight Communications Co. And with even more VOD sever vendors entering the market, the entire sector was...