Samsung buys set top box maker Boxee
Samsung is buying Boxee - an Israeli
firm that makes media streaming
devices.
The South Korean electronics giant said
it had "acquired key talent and assets"
from the company.
"This will help us continue to improve
the overall user experience across our
connected devices," it added.
Boxee's latest product lets subscribers
record TV shows onto its servers and
then stream them to TVs, computers and
smart devices "from the cloud".
It had previously raised $26.5m
(£17.3m) in funds from a range of US
and Israeli investors.
Samsung is the world's best-selling maker
of smart TVs - screens which which offer
access to apps, video-on-demand and
other internet content without the need
for a separate set-top box.
According to Informa Telecoms and
Media, 54 million smart TVs were sold
worldwide in the last year, and it expects
that number to grow to 221 million in
2017.
The consultancy suggested the takeover
might prove a good match because,
despite its apparent success, Samsung
was still struggling to convince
consumers to use its services rather than
those of others.
"When people are going into stores they
may end up with a smart TV by default
but at the moment they have little desire
to use their internet functions even if
they have a fast enough connection,"
said Paul Jackson, principal analyst at
Informa.
"But within the TV industry there is a lot
of optimism that consumers will want to
use these kind services in the future.
"Boxee has been playing with its own TV
user interface and has a good reputation
for making a link between its hardware
and a back-end service.
"But it's still early days for cloud TV
services and it's been difficult for Boxee
to make money. It makes more sense for
it to be part of a wider offering rather
than selling itself as a single function
device."
