Samsung buys Boxee for $30 million

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Boxee may be absorbed or reshaped for Samsung's empire.


Boxee's box is not what Samsung is after. It's the services.

Samsung has acquired the video streaming service Boxee for a reported $30 million, according to reports from AllThingsD and The Marker. The acquisition will likely bolster Samsung’s own proprietary smart TV platform and augment the cable and console services that its televisions feed to living rooms.

The price Samsung is paying matches the totality of the funding Boxee has received since 2008. Although Boxee’s hardware and services were met with initial excitement, they have failed to gain as much traction as Roku and Apple TV. Last October Boxee added cloud DVR storage as well as a live TV dongle that can grab antenna channels, but the company has still struggled to find funding recently.

Samsung has confirmed the purchase but not the amount and has given no indication of how it intends to put Boxee or its developments to use. Samsung’s only similar products come in the form of its Android TouchWiz interface and the smart TV interface it uses; perhaps a Boxee-like service that provides streaming video and integrated DVR service synced across smartphones, tablets, computers, and TVs could give Samsung’s products a competitive edge.

That TV manufacturers might buy up some of the streaming services seemed like a likely next step for both parties. Which companies will be next?

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