Phil Goldman, Microsoft TV platform division general manager, who announced the acquisition at the Kagan Interactive Summit in New York, didn't provide details. Peach Networks is 57 percent owned by Haifa, Israel-based Elbit, which will get US$43 million for the stake, valuing Peach at US$75.4 million.
Microsoft has been buying stakes in cable-TV and satellite-TV operators so the company's software can be used by TVs to connect to the Internet. Peach Networks equipment helps set-top boxes run on programs that use Windows, which operates about 90 percent of the world's personal computers.
"What's emerging slowly, and chaotically, is a better form of TV," Goldman said at the conference for interactive TV, which carries electronic program listings and the Internet. "The way we see the world, is, first of all, that TV is dominant."
Earlier this month, Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft said it would invest US$50 million in a joint venture with Israel-based Gilat Satellite Networks to provide high-speed Internet service to remote areas. Microsoft also has stakes in Comcast, the third largest U.S. cable operator, and Rogers Communications, the largest cable company in Canada.
Peach Networks has offices in Woburn, Mass., and Israel. Elbit, which owns part of the company, is itself 42 percent-owned by Elron Electronic. Elbit expects to have an agreement within a week to sell Peach to Microsoft, and the transaction will close one month later, Elron said.
Copyright 2000, Bloomberg L.P. All Rights Reserved.
Play video
There are currently no comments for this post.