More than a Wink
Acquisition of ITV application broadens Liberty's portfolio
By Ken Kerschbaumer -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/1/2002
With the acquisition of Wink Communications last week, Liberty Broadband Interactive Television continued to build its portfolio of interactive-television technology companies. Wink joins OpenTV and, potentially, ACTV in the Liberty fold.
Wink's interactive-TV application is a one-way system that has been deployed on DCT-2000 set-top boxes at a number of cable and satellite operators, including Time Warner Cable, Charter, Comcast DirecTV and EchoStar. Content providers include CNN, ESPN, the four major networks and The Weather Channel.
Under the deal, Wink shareholders will receive $3 in cash for each share of common stock. It's expected to close in the third quarter.
Yankee Group's Adi Kishore, notes that Wink's application has found a home on millions of DCT-2000 set-top boxes and has already been found attractive to advertisers and programmers. "I don't see consumers shelling out much for it, now or ever, but it's a useful application," he says, adding, "I also still don't see broad deployment of highly evolved ITV applications."
