Mobile video is taking off in Japan, where mobile operator NTT DoCoMo just invested $45.5 million in PacketVideo, which s a long-time supplier of mobile video software. The all-cash investment gives NTT Docomo a 35 percent stake in PacketVideo, which is s subsidiary of NextWave Wireless (a holding company that owns rights to wireless spectrum in the U.S. which it plans to use for a Wimax network). NextWave acquired PacketVideo in 2005 and the company is now its main source of cash.
The investment indicates how important PacketVideo’s technology is to NTT Docomo, and raises the possibility of an outright purchase down the line. Other customers of PacketVideo include Verizon Wireless, Orange (in France), and T-Mobile. They might not feel so warm and fuzzy about PacketVideo now being so closely aligned with another carrier, even if it is in Japan.
In the past, NTT DoCoMo tried to expand abroad through an aggressive investment program. Maybe it sees cheap assets it wants to grab once again. The $45.5 million investment values PacketVideo at $130 million.
This is what LiveWire (LVWR) should have done instead of going public on NASDAQ and delisting shortly after.
None of these mobile companies is big enough or has enough interest to go public.
Would love to see a write up on what the plans are for the wireless spectrum in the US.
Anything coming on that from on TC?
Wouldn’t it be great If Nextwave and Docomo worked on a wimax network together.
I have more expectation from wimax network
PacketVideo ?
mobile video ?
it seems that more and more people would like to invest on wireless.
“Mobile video is taking off in Japan” – mobile video has been popular in Japan and South Korea since at least 2006, in the form of broadcast television specifically for mobile phone reception….
Of course, you are probably blogging more about IP-delivered video.
It’ll be interesting to see how mediaFLO does on Verizon and AT&T now that the digital transition is now complete and mediaFLO is now fully accessible nationwide in the United States.
can it cheaper?