The companies say the combination of technologies and products will accelerate the time taken for Broadcom to bring to market next-generation video solutions for applications such as enhanced cable and satellite TV and IP set-top boxes and video conferencing.

Sand Video (Andover, Mass.) products support existing MPEG-2 compression standards as well as the emerging ITU-T H.264 standard, also known as advanced video coding (AVC), or MPEG-4 Part 10. It also will support Microsoft's Windows Media 9 compression and decompression standards in the future.

The latest video compression algorithm technologies developed by Sand provide an over 50-percent reduction in the bit rate required to transmit a video signal. It allows cable or satellite operators to provide more channels and consumers to record more movies on their PVR set-top boxes.

Daniel Marotta, group vice president of Broadcom's Broadband Communications Group, said: "The acquisition of Sand Video and its advanced technology will allow us to offer customers more complete solutions that support all of the major existing and emerging video compression formats and enable customers to bring their products to market more rapidly."

Peter Besen, president and CEO of Sand Video, added: "Combining Broadcom's outstanding design experience with Sand Video's advanced silicon compression technology will create highly integrated silicon solutions that fill the demand for next-generation, feature-rich consumer electronic devices."

Just over $70 million of the total price paid will be in shares and $7.4 million in cash. In exchange, Broadcom gets all outstanding shares of Sand Video capital stock upon exercise of outstanding employee stock options of Sand Video.

Broadcom said it expects to record a one-time charge in its second quarter for purchased in-process research and development expenses related to the acquisition. The amount of that charge has not yet been determined.

By: DocMemory
Copyright © 2023 CST, Inc. All Rights Reserved