Espial overeating
Kasenna acquisition gives Espial a leadership position in IPTV VoD, and at the same time strengthens the company’s middleware portfolio. Espial will pay $6.7 million (in shares) to acquire Kasenna. Kasenna has one of the most advanced and open IPTV middleware platforms in the market from the applications point of view (Web services APIs and all). However its strength is IPTV VoD. Kasenna raised over $36 million in funding over the last four years. Intel Capital has been the main backer.
Kasenna VoD solution is used by major IPTV players like Neuf Cegetel and Fastweb. There are some deployments at cable companies as well. I am not sure whether the cable deployments are hybrid kind of installations (with VoD component being IP based). However Espial must be hoping to get some cable business with the help of Kasenna acquisition.
In pure IPTV deployments, Kasenna leads the VoD equipment market. However if you consider the hybrid deployments as well (with VoD component only being IP based) then SeaChange might be ahead. Nevertheless Kasenna is among the top VoD players.
In terms of the new OEM relationships the acquisition brings, Kasenna has had partnerships with Alcatel-Lucent and IBM. Huawei could be a major OEM channel that Kasenna brings in.
There is some overlap in the middleware product lines. However there is also some ‘symmetry’ since – as we are told – Espial and Kasenna middleware products are built around similar architecture.
