Anyone who follows Cisco knows that they are betting big on video and have been hard at work building out a video based system for service providers called Videoscape. Cisco's goal is to be the dominant platform that service providers use for the distribution and monetization of over-the-top video. Carriers, telcos and MSOs, are the future of the video delivery business and Cisco has made multiple acquisitions over the past eighteen months adding more functionality to their platform. This morning, Cisco announced it had now made its third acquisition that ties into Videoscape, this time acquiring BNI Video in a deal valued at $99M.

In February of this year Cisco acquired Inlet Technologies after having acquired Extend Media the year before. After the Inlet acquisition, I wrote that Cisco will probably acquire an analytics platform next as that's really the only missing piece of their platform and with the BNI Video acquisition, that's part of what they have now gotten. Videoscape has all the functionality it needs when it comes to enabling content owners to ingest, transcode, store, manage and deliver video, but the tracking and analytics piece of the platform still needed to be addressed. Now all Cisco needs to acquire is a transparent caching provider and their platform will be complete.

Based on the three acquisitions Cisco has made and the numbers I hear from some folks inside Cisco on what they are spending on further developing Videoscape, the company has easily invested over $400M on the platform in under two years. Cisco sees video as one of their five company priorities and it's clear they are willing to spend heavily to secure their position in what is expected to be a huge market for service providers looking to manage the expected growth of video on their networks.

Cisco, Comcast and Time Warner Cable were early investors in BNI Video which had raised north of $16M and the deal is expected to close in the second quarter of Cisco's fiscal year 2012.

Related Posts:

– 2/11 – Cisco's Acquisition Of Inlet Probably Not The Last, Expect Analytics Platform Next

– 8/10 – Cisco To Acquire Extend Media In Deal Worth $80M

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