TV centric Ericsson drops Tandberg name

Wilson

Ericsson has confirmed it will drop the Tandberg Television brand from January 25.

The Swedish telecom infrastructure company paid $1.39 billion (€930.2 million) for Tandberg in February 2007, topping an earlier $1.2 billion attempt made by Arris. It has subsequently brought the two organisations together, sharing stand space at major exhibitions, and where appropriate unifying the sales effort.

Signs that the Tandberg brand was being set aside came last week, when Ericsson’s announcement of a ten-year agreement with TV4 Group was made without mention of the old moniker.

“Tandberg Television as a standalone organisation could never have aspired to do that. Being part of Ericsson provides us with additional scale, additional reach and additional competences,” Giles Wilson, CTO, Tandberg Television told a press lunch in London.

From January 25 all of the company solutions will be sold under the Ericsson brand. Wilson said this was a natural next step having previously brought together solutions into one portfolio and developed a combined vision for TV products.

In a note to customers issued at lunchtime today, Tuesday, Tandberg Television president Staffan Pehrson said the merged entity would draw on decades of broadcast TV market leadership and technology innovation. He anticipated a move to more on-demand, more HD, with multi-platform and converged television across cable, satellite, telco and terrestrial platforms.