Cisco Systems, Inc. an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, specializing in design, manufacturing, and sales of networking equipment, is purchasing NDS, developer of software solutions for multi-channel television providers which is jointly owned by European private equity firm Permira, and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., for $ 5 billion.
NDS was founded in Jerusalem in 1988, by a group of Israeli scientists from the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot. The company has specialized in the development of interactive systems for secure transmission of entertainment and information to digital TV, digital set-tops, PCs and mobile devices. In addition, NDS is developing electronic security solutions for Web applications.
Calcalist, the financial website that broke the story, suggests the negotiations over the sale were the reason for the resignation of Dr. Abe Peled from his post as CEO of the company in July 2011. Peled, an Israeli who had led NDS for 16 years, was appointed as Chairman of the company, being replaced as CEO by Dave Habiger. Chief operating officer is Raffi Kesten, who also manages the operations of the company and its development center in Israel.
The sale was kept secret from NDS empoyees, who only found out about it early Thursday morning.