NDS

Founded on Israeli research

NDS was founded in 1988 in Jerusalem, based on technology developed at the Weizmann Institute of Science. A Calcalist article based on interviews with its founders listed Dov Rubin, Yoni Hashkes, Michael Dick and Yishai Sered as the first founders. Adi Shamir developed the core algorithm, while the team of engineers developed the technology and ran the business. The company's 2011 prospectus said that its predecessor was set up as a joint venture with News Corporation. The company combined research in encryption with a commercial need of broadcasters: to deliver content to paying subscribers and to restrict access to it. Alongside the development center in Jerusalem, an international operation was built, and the company's headquarters were near London. It was a software company for the television industry, whose products worked behind services that viewers knew well.

What the products did

The VideoGuard system provided access control for pay-TV broadcasts. Its job was to protect the content and allow viewing according to the subscriber's permissions. The company also developed middleware for set-top boxes, tools for viewing interfaces and software for digital recording. The prospectus described a model of licensing software components and providing services, in which the number of subscribers and devices using the company's solutions is a key driver of revenue. With this combination, TV operators could offer content search, navigation and recording alongside protection of the broadcast. Its customers included operators such as Sky and DirecTV.

Milestone: TV in millions of homes

In its 2011 prospectus, the company reported that its access control systems served about 110 million households, about 27% of the world's households subscribing to digital pay TV, according to Screen Digest figures for June 2011. A Multichannel News article on the Cisco deal in March 2012 reported, based on NDS figures, that VideoGuard was installed in 114 million households and that its middleware was used in about 206 million devices. The first figure refers to subscribing households, and the second to devices on which the company's software was installed. In this way the company's technology was part of everyday TV viewing around the world.

From News Corporation to Cisco

In 1992 NDS became a wholly owned subsidiary of News Corporation. It was listed on Nasdaq in 1999, and in February 2009 it became a private company again, owned by Permira funds and News Corporation. Cisco announced the acquisition agreement on 15 March 2012. According to Cisco's annual report, the deal was completed on 30 July 2012; the closing announcement was published on 31 July. The price was about $5 billion in cash, including about $1 billion to repay debt. So the amount was not all paid to shareholders. The business was merged into Cisco's video business.

Legacy

According to a Cisco document for customers, the sale of its video software business to Permira funds was completed on 28 October 2018. On 29 October, the launch of Synamedia was announced, the new company built from the business that was sold. Synamedia included video security, client software, video processing and cloud recording, but also assets that did not originate at NDS. In an interview with CTech in December 2018, CEO Yves Padrines described the research and development center that originated at NDS as the basis for a central part of the technology. Abe Peled, who had been CEO of NDS, was appointed chairman of Synamedia. The link between the companies was kept in the products, in the development center and in the people who moved from one to the other.