Samsung buys Apple TV competitor Boxee for $30 million
Samsung may be looking to take its rivalry with Apple to another level, as a new report has the South Korean tech giant buying streaming media startup Boxee in a move that will bring it into even more direct competition with the Apple TV.
Boxee produces a set-top box that streams media to TVs and other devices, and Samsung has reportedly purchased the small Israeli startup for about $30 million, The Marker reported on Wednesday. Samsung will continue to employ Boxee's 40 employees, according to the report.
A follow-up report from The New York Times confirmed The Marker's initial report, with Samsung affirming that it has indeed acquired assets and talent from Boxee. The degree to which Boxee will be brought into Samsung's operations is unclear from statements company representatives have made.
"Samsung has acquired key talent and assets from Boxee," a spokeswoman told the Times. "This will help us continue to improve the overall user experience across our connected devices.
Boxee has raised $28.5 million in funding as a startup, and the company was said to be looking for an additional $30 million before it decided to try for an outright acquisition.
Samsung already has a number of devices that perform similarly to Boxee's technology, but the talent and tech acquisition could be aimed at helping the South Korean company develop better options to compete with Apple's Apple TV set-top box. Apple has sold millions of units of the diminutive content streamer, while Samsung's existing efforts have comparatively fizzled.
In addition to its HomeSync and other set-top devices, the company produces a range of Smart TV options that hit many price and capability points. Samsung could also integrate Boxee's technology into the functions of those devices in order to better their capabilities.
Samsung could also be working on a shortened calendar with regard to how it can counter what many think is an imminent larger move by Apple into the television segment. While the Cupertino company has long insisted that the Apple TV was a hobby, the firm is largely expected to either be working on a full-fledged television or a vastly upgraded set-top unit with a much wider range of abilities. To that end, Apple is said to be working with Time Warner to secure a content deal that could be announced in the coming months.
Boxee produces a set-top box that streams media to TVs and other devices, and Samsung has reportedly purchased the small Israeli startup for about $30 million, The Marker reported on Wednesday. Samsung will continue to employ Boxee's 40 employees, according to the report.
A follow-up report from The New York Times confirmed The Marker's initial report, with Samsung affirming that it has indeed acquired assets and talent from Boxee. The degree to which Boxee will be brought into Samsung's operations is unclear from statements company representatives have made.
"Samsung has acquired key talent and assets from Boxee," a spokeswoman told the Times. "This will help us continue to improve the overall user experience across our connected devices.
Boxee has raised $28.5 million in funding as a startup, and the company was said to be looking for an additional $30 million before it decided to try for an outright acquisition.
Samsung already has a number of devices that perform similarly to Boxee's technology, but the talent and tech acquisition could be aimed at helping the South Korean company develop better options to compete with Apple's Apple TV set-top box. Apple has sold millions of units of the diminutive content streamer, while Samsung's existing efforts have comparatively fizzled.
In addition to its HomeSync and other set-top devices, the company produces a range of Smart TV options that hit many price and capability points. Samsung could also integrate Boxee's technology into the functions of those devices in order to better their capabilities.
Samsung could also be working on a shortened calendar with regard to how it can counter what many think is an imminent larger move by Apple into the television segment. While the Cupertino company has long insisted that the Apple TV was a hobby, the firm is largely expected to either be working on a full-fledged television or a vastly upgraded set-top unit with a much wider range of abilities. To that end, Apple is said to be working with Time Warner to secure a content deal that could be announced in the coming months.
Comments
Samsung need a "hobby" too.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
This caldron is getting steamier.
Answer: most
Like flinging s*** on the wall, blindfolded, hoping for logical connexions.
Wierd. Boxee is based on an old XBMC source, they took the open source code and build on it. This thing is mostly used by HTPC fans, just like some people hack the Apple TV to run the current XBMC open source projet. I think you can even run Boxee on the Apple TV.
They must want the brains indeed, because the product is just another XBMC version. Most of the people with this thing are using pirated bittorrents content or streaming pirated TV channels.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rain
How many AppleTV's are running Boxee?
Answer: most
If your definition of "most" is "probably less than 5%" then I agree with your guess.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ifij775
They raised $28.5M and sold for $30? That doesn't sounds like a big win for anyone with equity.
Agreed. They must have gotten tired of waiting for Google to offer $3B.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rain
How many AppleTV's are running Boxee?
Answer: most
not sure where you got that information..
Quote:
Originally Posted by superjunaid
not sure where you got that information..
If we are talking about the ATV2, he may actually be right.
Quote:
Originally Posted by herbapou
If we are talking about the ATV2, he may actually be right.
I could never get on with boxee but I run xbmc on my jailbroken ATV2 all the time as I've got a couple of hundred ripped DVDs (with the physical DVDs in a box in my loft) sat on my ReadyNAS and served up via UPNP....
still holding out hope for an ATV3 jailbreak at some point, but definitely not holding my breath this long after release.
I guess paying $30m was cheaper than just buying the copy machines for Samsung.
Quote:
Originally Posted by herbapou
If we are talking about the ATV2, he may actually be right.
I didn't think Boxee ran on the black ATVs, just XBMC (on jailbroken ATV2s). I have it running on my ATV1 and love it (XBMC has a lot of capability, obviously as Boxee is built on top of it, but while XBMC has very pretty menus, Boxee's interface is much better).
Say what you will about Samsung, I honestly don't think Boxee would have remained particularly competitive in the long run. In early days I think there were folks running Boxee on their HTPCs, Mac Minis, and first generation AppleTVs, but how many people bought their (Logitech-made) Box? Honestly I had some interest in it when it came out (and after Boxee dropped support and development for everything else), but once I installed Plex on my Roku I was pretty happy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by herbapou
If we are talking about the ATV2, he may actually be right.
Well, it's more of a guess.
Out of the 15+ people I know with Apple TV's - every single one of them jailbroken and running Boxee or XBMC.
I have people asking me all the time if I know how to do that for them as well.
Apple's love affair with restrictions, DRM, and tech nerfing - render the ATV almost useless out of the box.
I understand why they do it... but man, imagine if you took it out of the box and it just worked... with everything.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rain
Well, it's more of a guess.
Out of the 15+ people I know with Apple TV's - every single one of them jailbroken and running Boxee or XBMC.
I have people asking me all the time if I know how to do that for them as well.
Apple's love affair with restrictions, DRM, and tech nerfing - render the ATV almost useless out of the box.
I understand why they do it... but man, imagine if you took it out of the box and it just worked... with everything.
If all of your friends are doing something, then it's probably safe to assume that most of the entire world is doing it, too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rain
Apple's love affair with restrictions, DRM, and tech nerfing - render the ATV almost useless out of the box.
I understand why they do it... but man, imagine if you took it out of the box and it just worked... with everything.
Oh I dunno - for what it's designed for, I think it works great. I admit I use my Roku+Plex more often these days, but I still love my first-gen AppleTV. I have loads of iTunes content, and for playing music it's got (by far) the best interface out there and the iOS remote app is a great way to drive it.