Israel’s ‘Silicon Wadi’: Samsung Pays Tens of Millions for Israeli Internet Streaming Company Boxee
by Joshua Levitt
Another “Silicon Wadi” start-up was acquired by a multinational group on Thursday, with Korea’s Samsung reportedly agreeing to pay about $30 million for Israeli cloud streaming company Boxee, Israel’s Globes newspaper and US tech blog GigaOM reported.
Boxee, founded in 2007 by Avner Ronen, Tom Sella, Idan Cohen, Gidon Coussin, and Roy Vulcan, developed an interface which allows users to record and store content in the Cloud, providing easier access to Internet video content than other applications.
Two years ago, Boxee, in a joint venture with Taiwan’s D-Link, released the Boxee Box and, last year, the Boxee Cloud DVR. While distribution and profitability remained elusive, technologists applauded the Boxee products, and Samsung is expected to incorporate the technology as a DVR offering in its smart TV platform.
Globes said that among the investors in Boxee are venture capital firm Pitango and Softbank. The sale comes after reported unsuccessful attempts at trying to raise further capital to continue as an independent developer.