Cisco Moving into Chinese TV Box Market with DVN Buy

Cisco (CSCO) announced the acquisition of Chinese digital TV box maker DVN Holdings for about $45 million.

Digital TV boxes, also known as set-top boxes, allow cable and satellite providers to deliver interactive TV services like video-on-demand as well as higher picture quality to their subscribers. Although the acquisition of DVN is a small transaction by Cisco's standards, it provides Cisco access to a fast growing market.

Key Takeaways:

• We forecast that global digital TV box market is expected to increase from about 100 million units shipped in 2009 to nearly 200 million by the end of the Trefis forecast period.

• China has 160 million cable subscribers, making it the largest cable market in the world. Cisco expects the market to grow to 200 million subscribers over the next 3-5 years.

• The Chinese government has mandated full digitization of cable by 2015.

• DVN shipped slightly less than 1 million digital boxes in first six months of 2009.

• Cisco currently has about 15% market share in the global digital TV box market.

Key Questions:

1. How much does the digital TV box business matter for Cisco (as a percentage of the stock)?

(a) 1%
(b) 5%
(c) 10%
(d) 20%

2. Which major tech stock is most impacted by digital TV boxes?

Answers: About 5%, Motorola

Disclosure: No positions