NDS Group

NDS Group

Type	Private
Founded	1989
Headquarters	Staines, United Kingdom
Key people	Dave Habiger, CEO Abe Peled, Executive Chairman
Products	VideoGuard Conditional Access Videoguard Connect DRM MediaHighway - Set Top Box Software Broadband IPTV XTV Digital Video Recorders DVRs) OTT Unified Headend Gateways Interactive TV
Employees	5,300 as at June 2011 (3,900 technical)
Subsidiaries	Jungo CastUp
Website	www.nds.com
References: Other statistics: (03/2011)      CA/DRM                      150 million (active)     Middleware                       180 million (cumulative)     Digital Video Recorders    35 million (cumulative)     Residential Gateways         2.7 million (cumulative)

NDS Group Plc. (Formerly traded as NASDAQ: NNDS) is a developer of pay TV technology. NDS was established in 1988 as an Israeli start up company.^[1] It was acquired by News Corporation in 1992. The company is currently headquartered in Staines, United Kingdom. Its major shareholders are Permira, which holds 51%, and News Corporation, which holds approximately 49%.

The Executive Chairman of NDS is Abe Peled and the CEO is Dave Habiger. The company's major product is the VideoGuard conditional access system, which is used by more than 85 leading pay TV operators around the world. , NDS Technology includes end to end solutions for satellite, broadband IPTV, Hybrid,OTT solutions and EPGs. It has just launched VideoGuard Connect, the DRM for Pay-TV, designed to help TV operators to seamlessly extend their pay-TV services to connected media devices, enabling secure ingestion, delivery and consumption of premium content over both managed and OTT networks while maintaining subscription privileges across devices. NDS also provides advanced advertising, professional services and system integration services. New solutions to secure content on PCs, tablets, and other devices will be displayed at IBC and CES.

NDS offices in Har Hotzvim, Jerusalem

History

The company was established in 1988 by a group of ten scientists of the Weizmann Institute, a university and research institute in Rehovot, Israel. The company was based on the technology developed by the Israeli cryptographer Adi Shamir. ^[2][1]

In 1992, one year after finalizing its product, the company was acquired by its primary customer, News Corp, for $15 million. ^[1]In 1999, the company was spun off and began trading as a public company.^[1] It was traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange. In 2003, NDS sales reached nearly $400 million.^[1]In 2004, NDS, by then a company with 1,500 employees^[3], set its headquarters, with some 800 employees at the time, in Jerusalem's Har Hotzvim high-tech industrial park, in what has been described as one of the biggest moves made by a tech firm in Israel.^[4] In 2008, the company scaled down its Har Hotzvim office from 1,100 to 1000 employees.^[5]In 2009, Permira and News Corporation announced a $3.6 billion arrangement for buying the public holding in NDS, turning it into a privately held company.^[6][7]

Acquisitions

• In December 2000 NDS acquired Orbis Technology, a british company which develops software for interactive betting, in order to strengthens its application portfolio for Interactive TV.^[8]
  • In March 2008 Orbis Technology acquired Electracade Ltd, a UK based developer of online interactive games for £2.6M.^[9]
  • In July 2010 Orbis Technology acquired Alphameric Solutions, a provider of technology to the bookmaking marketplace, from Alphameric PLC for £15.5M.
  • In February 2011, Orbis Technology was sold by NDS for £208m, in a management buyout backed by private equity firm Vitruvian Partners.^[10]

• In June 2002 NDS acquired Visionik A/S, a Danish company, which provides digital interactive broadcast technology.
• In August 2003 NDS acquired all the intellectual property assets of a French interactive TV technology company Interactif Delta Production S.A.^[11]
• On 16 December 2003, NDS acquired the MediaHighway middleware business from Canal+ Technologies a subsidiary of Thomson SA and licensed certain related patents from Thomson SA for a total consideration of EUR 60 million.^[12]
• In October 2006 NDS acquired Danish game design company ITE.^[13]

• On December 4, 2006, NDS acquired Jungo, which provides software for residential gateways, for an aggregate consideration of up to $107.5 million in cash.^[14]

• On August 7, 2007 NDS acquired CastUp Inc, which provides an end to end solution for the acquisition, processing, distributing, serving and monetizing of rich media content over IP, particularly video and audio over the internet.^[15]

Products and Customers

As of June 2011, more than 150 million active CA and DRM devices use Videoguard. MediaHighway set-top-box software as been cumulatively deployed in more than 180 million set-top boxes. XTV PVR/DVR technology is used by more than 20 operators in more than 35 million set-top-boxes. It is more commonly identifiable under the names Sky+ (in BSkyB) and DirecTV+ (in DirecTV). NDS has deployed or activated more than 163 million set-top boxes with its MediaHighway middleware.

NDS also supplies interactive TV applications, platforms, and development tools. NDS has over 5700 employees, with offices in the UK, Israel, India, United States, Spain, Germany, Brazil, Russia, Singapore, France, Denmark, South Korea, China, Hong Kong and Australia.

Leading customers include DirecTV (in the USA), BSkyB, Sky Italia, Sky Deutschland, SKY México, SKY Brasil, SKY Network Television (in New Zealand), Viasat (in Sweden, Norway & Denmark), TotalTV, Foxtel (in Australia), China Central Television (CCTV), Yes and Hot (in Israel), SkyLife, CanalSat (in France), Astro (in Malaysia), Cablevision (in the USA), Tata Sky, Airtel, Hathway, Telecom Italia and Den (in India).

See also

• Conditional access
• Interactive television
• Science and technology in Israel
• Silicon Wadi

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} From Underdogs to Tigers: The Rise and Growth of the Software Industry in Brazil, China, India, Ireland, and Israel. Ashish Arora, Alfonso Gambardella, Oxford University Press, 2006 . p. 84
2. ^ David Brinn. The Israeli algorithm inside your satellite box. June 05, 2005
3. ^ Israel Hi-Tech directory 2004. p.141
4. ^ Galya Yemini. NDS Technologies takes up residence in single new digs. Haaretz, 2004
5. ^ NDS fires 100 Jerusalem employees; Tower lays off 200. Jerusalem Post
6. ^ UK - Permira and News Corp. complete NDS acquisition
7. ^ News Corp. to de-list NDS. Globes.
8. ^ NDS Acquires Orbis Technology, a Leader in Software for Interactive Betting BusinessWire Dec 1, 2000
9. ^ Orbis Acquires Leading UK Online Interactive Games Developer, Electracade Ltd BusinessWire, Dec, 2008
10. ^ OpenBet in £208m management buy out
11. ^ NDS Acquires Certain Assets of Interactive TV Technology Company IDP in France.
12. ^ NDS Acquires CANAL+ TECHNOLOGIES MEDIAHIGHWAY Middleware Business from THOMSON S.A. BusinessWire Sep 2003
13. ^ NDS acquires Danish game design company ITE Pressbox, 02.10.2006
14. ^ NDS Acquires Jungo Light Reading; December 4, 2006
15. ^ NDS buys CastUp, as fiscal year profit and revenue rise Globes, Aug, 7, 2007