Cisco is dominant in the CMTS (Cable Modem Termination System - i.e. cable router) space with their uBR 10K product. By aquiring a settop company that essentially implements non-standard/proprietary PHY and MAC layer protocols, Cisco will be able to move their direction to open CableLabs based standards such as the DSG (DOCSIS Settop Gateway) specification. By doing this, Cisco will sell even more CMTS' since SA PVRs and digital settops will now speak the DOCSIS protocol and be able to be provisioned onto the uBR platform. MSO's will be able to leverage their existing broadband hi-speed assets to video / VOD / SVOD making them happy campers also. In addition, when the DOCSIS 3.0 M-CMTS (Modular CMTS) specification finishes cooking, vendors in the CMTS and M-QAM space will be fighting it out for products, and this aquisition moves Cisco one step closed to a video endpoint M-QAM integration.
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But the vast majority of units deployed in US and Canadian MSO's are not based on DOCSIS....I know this.
Cisco is dominant in the CMTS (Cable Modem Termination System - i.e. cable router) space with their uBR 10K product. By aquiring a settop company that essentially implements non-standard/proprietary PHY and MAC layer protocols, Cisco will be able to move their direction to open CableLabs based standards such as the DSG (DOCSIS Settop Gateway) specification. By doing this, Cisco will sell even more CMTS' since SA PVRs and digital settops will now speak the DOCSIS protocol and be able to be provisioned onto the uBR platform. MSO's will be able to leverage their existing broadband hi-speed assets to video / VOD / SVOD making them happy campers also. In addition, when the DOCSIS 3.0 M-CMTS (Modular CMTS) specification finishes cooking, vendors in the CMTS and M-QAM space will be fighting it out for products, and this aquisition moves Cisco one step closed to a video endpoint M-QAM integration.