This week ended with a bang as Cisco announced their acquisition of Scientific Atlanta. As more companies move towards IPTV and video-based networking, buying Scientific Atlanta puts Cisco in a good position to benefit. The question is how soon?

"Video is emerging as the key strategic application in the service provider triple play bundle of consumer entertainment, communication and online services," said John Chambers, president and chief executive officer of Cisco Systems. "The combination of Cisco and Scientific-Atlanta brings unmatched experience and innovation in delivering large scale video systems and networks, and the addition of Scientific-Atlanta further extends Cisco's commitment to and leadership in the service provider market. Moreover, Cisco's international presence and IP leadership will also create strategic synergies that accelerate the combined growth opportunity."

Scientic Atlanta will be aligned with Linksys within the company. Cisco said the move would create an "end-to-end" triple play solution for service providers and Cisco will begin to develop and deliver a variety of integrated media services in the connected home.

Cisco will look at leveraging their international relationships to try and sell Scientific Atlanta's products, which are mostly sold in the U.S.

Here are some other headlines...

Governing the Internet
the Inquirer - November 18, 2005
"TEN YEARS of in-fighting over who should run the Internet and this week's World Summit on the Information Society meeting ended with a deal to create the Internet Governance Forum. It will have the international representation everyone except the US wanted governance of the Internet to have but won't be able to do anything. For the moment ICANN wins in the sense that it gets to continue overseeing the operation of the domain name system. ICANN has many critics, both outside and (formerly) inside its organization but in the end, although many people have suggested alternatives to the current system, none of these have gained enough traction to become a threat. ICANN was operationally safe; now it's safe by international policy as well."

Cisco not expecting layoffs from Scientific-Atlanta buy
ITworld.com - November 18, 2005
"Cisco Systems Inc. doesn't expect its planned US$6.9 billion acquisition of set-top box manufacturer Scientific-Atlanta Inc. to result in significant employee layoffs or integration costs, according to a Cisco senior executive. Instead, as well as adding video capabilities into its product line, the networking equipment giant is hoping to realize cost savings through joint procurement and increased international business once the purchase is complete."

Sir Alan Sugar says advertising has had it
Informitv - November 18, 2005
"Sir Alan Sugar, the chairman of consumer electronics company Amstrad, one of the suppliers of the Sky+ personal video recorder, believes that television advertising has had its day."

Will IPTV Bloom in 2006?
Light Reading - November 16, 2005
"After discussions with 12 large broadband providers, Infonetics Research Inc. believes that IPTV infrastructure spending will zoom to almost a billion in 2006, then double by the end of 2007 and reach $4.5 billion in 2009."

"Carriers around the world are looking to IPTV services to push up average revenue per user (ARPU) from a “near-saturated broadband subscriber base,” Infonetics says."

SBC won't repeat DSL goofs, exec says
Telephone Online - November 15, 2005
"SBC Communications will not repeat the mistakes it made in deploying DSL as it rolls out Project LightSpeed and IPTV, executive vice president of operations Zeke Robertson told an Austin, Texas, audience of global service providers Monday."

Is an SBC/BellSouth Merger Next?
Light Reading - November 14, 2005
"Now that the Verizon Communications Inc. acquisition of MCI Inc. and the SBC Communications Inc. acquisition of AT&T Corp. are headed for completion, some believe it is only a matter of time before SBC acquires BellSouth. The reason: the two RBOCs' joint ownership of Cingular Wireless LLC."