Announced this morning, Microsoft is selling their IPTV platform to Ericsson for an undisclosed amount.
According to Yususf Mehdi, Corporate Vice President of Marketing, Strategy and Business for the Interactive Entertainment Business of which both IPTV and Xbox operate under, the move will “allow Microsoft to commit 100 percent of its focus on consumer TV strategy with Xbox.”
Watchers don’t have to read in between the lines to understand why Microsoft is choosing to offload the Mediaroom technology now. In fact, today’s statement lays it out quite plainly:
“With the sale of Mediaroom, Microsoft is dedicating all TV resources to Xbox in a continued mission to make it the premium entertainment service that delivers all the games and entertainment consumers want – whether on a console, phone, PC or tablet. And with 76 million Xbox 360 consoles around the world with 46 million Xbox LIVE members, it is a mission that gets us out of bed in the morning.
It is not a mission that we can achieve alone. We want to partner with the industry to deliver the next wave of innovation in games and consumer entertainment. We will partner with content creators, studios, labels, networks, content aggregators, operators and distributors to make this happen. We believe the future of home entertainment is one where TV becomes more simple, tailored and intelligent. We believe the best is yet to come for this industry.” – Yusef Mehdi, Corporate Vice President of Marketing, Strategy and Business for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft
Historically, Microsoft Mediaroom created software and technology that powered boxes that plugged into your television –cable boxes from your local cable provider if you will. According to Microsoft the division’s software powers 22 million of those boxes in 11 million homes.
Microsoft last shipped a significant update to the platform with Mediaroom 2.0 back in January of 2013.