SeaChange Buys Liberate's Int’l Assets

SeaChange International Inc. is buying most of the international interactive-TV-software assets of Liberate Technologies for $25.5 million in cash.

Liberate has deployed its software with NTL Inc., Telewest Communications plc and UnitedGlobalCom Inc. in Europe.

The domestic Liberate assets were purchased earlier this year by a joint venture between Comcast Corp. and Cox Communications Inc.

SeaChange gets the rights to certain customer contracts, patents and other intellectual property, along with assuming certain limited liabilities.

"The combination of Liberate's middleware platform with our powerful digital-video-delivery systems and ‘VODLink’ applications will allow us to offer our international customers a common, robust platform to enable them to drive new features and services for digital and interactive TV," SeaChange CEO Bill Styslinger said in a prepared statement.