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Broadcast, Broadband And Internet Leaders Invest In OpenTV
OpenTV, the worldwide leader in digital interactive television software, has announced investment in the company by six leading broadcast, broadband and Internet companies. The backing of this consortium will open doors for OpenTV to penetrate the U.S. market, and expand the range of interactive applications available for its platform around the world. Five of the six companies are new strategic investors and partners in OpenTV, including America Online, General Instrument Corporation, Liberty Digital, News Corporation and Time Warner. Sun Microsystems, who was a founding shareholder in OpenTV in 1994, has increased its shareholding as part of this deal. The investment group of six companies, coordinated by Liberty Digital, has purchased $31.25 million of Convertible Preferred Equity. MIH Limited remains the majority shareholder in OpenTV. ""We have proven our capability to host interactive television applications and generate revenues throughout Europe and other parts of the world,"" said Jan Steenkamp, CEO of OpenTV. ""Now we are joining with these industry leaders to enhance our worldwide position and bring digital interactive television to the U.S."" \ OpenTV will use the proceeds from these investments to fund the development of its growing applications business, which will help networks provide enhanced programming, personal communications services, ""t-commerce"" (e-commerce on TV), interactive advertising, and more. In addition, OpenTV will continue the development of its set-top box software business and expand its worldwide sales and marketing efforts. About OpenTV OpenTV is the worldwide leader in interactive television software for the digital set-top box providing a complete end-to-end solution for the development and delivery of interactive services via digital satellite, cable, and terrestrial broadcast. OpenTV set-top box software has been shipped with, or installed in, more than 4.3 million digital set-top boxes worldwide. To date, OpenTV software solutions have been deployed by 13 television networks worldwide, including British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) in the United Kingdom and TPS in France. EchoStar's DISH Networkô is scheduled to launch interactive services utilizing OpenTV software in the U.S. early next year. OpenTV is a registered trademark of OpenTV, Inc. Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The OpenTV set-top box software is licensed to more than 20 digital set-top box manufacturers, and OpenTV's authoring tools are licensed to more than 100 independent developers and content and service providers. OpenTV is a member of the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) project, CableLabs OpenCable initiative, ATSC DASE, and JavaTV. OpenTV is a licensee of Personal Javaô from Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW). OpenTV is now supported by investments from seven leading Internet and broadcast companies including America Online (NYSE: AOL), General Instrument (NYSE: GIC), Liberty Digital (Nasdaq: LDIG), News Corporation (NYSE: NWS) and Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) in addition to Sun Microsystems and MIH Limited (Nasdaq: MIHL). Worldwide headquarters for OpenTV is located in Mountain View, California, with European operations in Paris, France and offices in Seoul, South Korea and Beijing, China.