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20th November 2003 - Alcatel announced the purchase
of the Network Solutions unit of PacketVideo. This unit,
mainly based in San Diego, California, has brought award
winning video server technology to the mobile communications
industry. PacketVideo Corporation, including its Device
Solutions unit, is not part of the acquisition and will
remain an independent company continuing to specialize
in the development and integration of innovative multimedia
software for mobile phone, videophone, camera and other
device OEMs.
Recognized as a leader in multimedia technologies,
PacketVideo was the first company in the world to demonstrate
MPEG-4 video streaming to mobile devices, with standards-compliant
and carrier-grade technology. With an established footprint
among the leading multimedia content delivery solution
providers in Europe, Asia and North America, such as
NTT DoCoMo, T-Mobile, Orange, Mobilkom, New World Mobility
and others, the Network Solutions unit of PacketVideo
will strengthen Alcatel's offering for portals, application
service providers, content aggregators and mobile operator
customers, by enabling one-stop shopping for turnkey
multimedia solutions.
This acquisition is another significant step in Alcatel's
strategy to become a leader in broadband video solutions.
Through this and the previous acquisitions in the video
domain, Alcatel reinforces its worldwide market position
in video solutions. Alcatel offers a broad range of
mobile video solutions, spread over two segments: video
communication (video messaging, video telephony, video
conferencing, video mailbox) and video content delivery
(video streaming, video downloading, video push).
PacketVideo Corporation, under the leadership of CEO
Dr. James Brailean, will focus on delivering mobile
media solutions to device and chipset OEMs. With Alcatel
now backing its innovative server technology, this spin-off
is a key step in the company's drive to enable the mobile
multimedia marketplace. PacketVideo Corporation will
continue to work with the Network Solutions unit acquired
by Alcatel to ensure that end-to-end multimedia solutions
provide the highest quality user experience possible.
"Video is all about sharing emotions. It's about seeing
people face to face wherever you and they are, as well
as accessing and sharing attractive video content in
a ubiquitous manner. For this reason mobile video services
are becoming more and more important to the entire mobile
industry," says Etienne Fouques, President of mobile
communications activities, member of the Alcatel Executive
Committee. "The acquisition of PacketVideo's Network
Solutions unit is a key step in strengthening our value
proposition and solutions offering for our customers,
who play a key role in expanding the market for data
services."
"PacketVideo has been on the leading edge of the mobile
media revolution for more than five years," said Dr.
James Brailean, Ph.D., PacketVideo Chief Executive Officer.
"We are very pleased to see mobile video grow from an
idea in our labs into the highly capable video-enabled
handsets now available worldwide. And we are confident
that through this transfer to Alcatel, our server technology
can scale globally to serve the growing mobile media
market."
"We are committed to reinforce and build upon PacketVideo's
existing channel relationships with outstanding companies
like Siemens, NEC, HP and IBM," said Mike Barlow, Chief
Operating Officer of the PacketVideo Network Solutions
unit. "Our mobile operator and service provider customers
will benefit significantly from our ability to expand
our world leading mobile media solutions portfolio.
The backing of a large, experienced and well respected
organization like Alcatel will make a pivotal difference
in the adoption of mobile multimedia."
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