Video company Rovi has acquired video discovery and set-top box maker Fanhattan for an undisclosed amount, the companies announced today.
Rovi is known for providing media companies and distributors with its own entertainment discovery technologies, analytics, and more. The purchase of Fanhattan makes sense because this is an area Fanhattan has spent a lot of time in, but with a focus that's been more on consumers via a media social network/programming guide. Fanhattan is also known for its cable box replacement device, Fan TV, and has even signed deals with Cox and Time Warner Cable.
We were quite impressed with Fan TV's ability to make watching traditional television much more enjoyable while including on-demand streaming video services like Crackle and integration with the Fanhattan TV video discovery service. I'm guessing Rovi was as well.
Rovi said it plans to integrate Fanhattan's technology into its own. It will add Fanhattan founders Gilles BianRosa and Olivier Chalouhi to its leadership team.
“By combining our technology with Rovi’s expansive offerings and established relationships with content and service providers, we can significantly accelerate our goal of bringing next-generation entertainment discovery experience to the world,” BianRosa said in a statement. Hopefully, this means Rovi will help make Fan TV devices available to customers of all cable television providers in the near future.
While Rovi didn't reveal how much it spent to acquire Fanhattan, it did state that the transaction involved an all cash deal. Fanhattan previously raised $8.4 million in funding back in May.