Verizon Agrees To Buy Intel’s OnCue Streaming Platform

The deal positions Verizon to become a player in a new market for pay TV where channels are transmitted over the Internet. Intel had hoped to move in to that emerging platform — it has a lot invested in the set-top boxes its OnCue service would use — but was unable to secure licensing rights for popular services at competitive prices. Intel was believed to want $500M for its platform, but the companies didn’t offer financial terms for the widely anticipated deal, expected to close by the end of March. Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam says that it “provides us with the capabilities to build a powerful, capitally efficient engine for future growth and innovation.” The company adds that it expects to “integrate [Internet protocol]-based TV services with FiOS video to further differentiate FiOS from traditional cable TV offerings and to reduce ongoing deployment costs.” In addition, the company will integrate the service with its wireless 4G LTE network. It will keep the current OnCue management team in place and offer jobs to “substantially all of the approximately 350-person Intel unit” which will stay in Santa Clara, CA. Intel CEO Brian Krzanich says that with the sale his company can further align our focus and resources around our broad computing product portfolio in segments ranging from the Internet-of-Things to data centers.”

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