9/21/2010 -- Cisco Systems Inc. recently pulled the trigger on another acquisition -- that of content management specialist ExtendMedia in late August.

What's Cisco doing acquiring a content management vendor?

Officials said ExtendMedia would help Cisco help service providers deliver a richer user experience to their subscribers.

"As the video market transitions and consumers expect multi-screen engagement, service providers are enhancing their infrastructure to manage and deliver video to any device while providing a rich user experience," said Enrique Rodriguez, senior vice president and general manager with Cisco's Service Provider Video Technology Group, in a prepared release. "ExtendMedia will strengthen Cisco's position in the delivery of IP video services by enabling service providers to provide a more interactive and personal experience and to optimize quality for consumer viewing devices."

Industry watchers have a similarly sanguine take on Cisco's move.

"[T]he content management system [CMS[ software and expertise gained from the transaction [should] bolster Cisco's multi-screen video delivery proposition," writes Yoav Schreiber, a senior analyst with Current Analysis, in a research blast.

The ExtendMedia buy seems like a slam dunk from both tactical and strategic perspectives. In the case of the former, Schreiber explains, "ExtendMedia's technology enables Cisco to address the complexity in preparing and managing content ingested from multiple sources."

From a strategic perspective, ExtendMedia's technology should fill a gap in Cisco's IP video portfolio, which will enable it "to consolidate disparate CMS technologies -- such as for Internet and TV content -- into its content delivery network... offering multi-screen delivery," Schreiber suggests.

Once Cisco completes its acquisition of ExtendMedia, it will be able to offer a "proposition for managing the content that will increasingly be delivered over evolving IP architectures," according to Schreiber.

"Cisco's move challenges nearly all rivals that are also focused on addressing the multi-screen video opportunity. Solution vendors such as Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, and NSN have been promoting their own multi-screen video solutions by leveraging integration with their various SDP and back-office assets, including CMS," he concludes. "Similarly, Motorola has elevated its CMS technology as part of its Medios solution, with SeaChange attempting to do the same by connecting its AssetFlow technology with its Axiom/eventIS back-office platforms. Cisco poses a serious challenge to this competitive landscape, but its ultimate threat will be predicated on the ability to tie ExtendMedia's CMS solutions to back-office technology, an area where Cisco still lags its rivals."
--By Stephen Swoyer