SeaChange International is continuing in its evolution as a software-based company with today’s purchase of interactive TV software developer Flashlight Engineering and Consulting.
SeaChange is picking up all of the assets and intellectual property of Portland, Ore.-based Flashlight, which specializes in designing and writing software for digital TVs and set-top boxes. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Prior to the deal, Flashlight was a privately held company.
“We welcome the highly talented Flashlight organization to our SeaChange team,” said SeaChange CFO Mike Bornak. “This purchase of Flashlight assets is an example of the research and development investments we are making to accelerate the delivery of our next-generation software solutions and develop new revenue streams.”
As part of the agreement, SeaChange said it would create a business unit in Portland for the 20 Flashlight employees. Effective immediately, Flashlight President and CEO Eric Miller becomes vice president of engineering at SeaChange, reporting to Shiva Patibanda, general manager of SeaChange’s in-home business unit.
“Flashlight architects, along with SeaChange architects, have been contributing to the primary industry standards for consumer electronics, digital video and interactive TV software for many years,” Patibanda said. “These standards drive today’s software development environments for DVDs, digital cable, IPTV and DBS systems.
“Flashlight has worked across the spectrum of iTV software, from drivers to applications and from Web services to set-top boxes and mobile devices. Every major cable operator in the U.S. is using software developed by Flashlight engineers, and their expertise ties in nicely with our software development and deployments with all major cable operators in the Americas and Europe.”
Miller said Flashlight and SeaChange had previously collaborated on projects for large cable operators.
Over the last several years, SeaChange has been transforming itself into a software company. Last month, SeaChange International announced that it had completed the sale of its broadcast server and storage unit to a private investment group that has named the newly formed company XOR Media. Also, in May, SeaChange sold off its On Demand Group to Avail-TVN for $27 million.
