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Milhouse · (This post was last modified: 2013-07-03, 18:17 by Milhouse.)

Samsung buys Israeli-startup Boxee (Business Insider, Haaretz.com - may require subscription to read article) for $30mn.

Haaretz.com is claiming that Boxee's 40 employees will be kept on payroll, half of which are based in Israel.

Boxee could be an interesting addition to Samsung smart TVs... maybe another example of Samsung trying to put more distance between themselves and Google (TV)?

@Mods: If off-topic is a better location for this thread, please move it. Thanks.

swetoast · 2013-07-03, 18:39

Personally i hope they just buy em and then burns em after boxees failure with the DSM-320

**natethomas** · 2013-07-03, 18:39

Well that's interesting.

~~Robotica~~ · (This post was last modified: 2013-07-03, 19:09 by Robotica.)

Note that some boxee founders also played an important role in setting up the xbmc foundation. Also, untill recently, they were on the xbmc foundation board.

I mean, what could this mean for the sponsership deal with boxee..

**Martijn** · 2013-07-03, 19:21

What sponsorship deal?

~~Robotica~~ · (This post was last modified: 2013-07-03, 21:19 by Robotica.)

It's an old deal Martijn.
Also interesting is that Samsung stated to buy talent and assets, while this community and over at ffmpeg is the real deal.. 30 million for those few libs boxee developed; imagine the worth of xbmc and underlying technology.

**Martijn** · (This post was last modified: 2013-07-03, 19:42 by Martijn.)

Indeed old deal, case closed. Move along.

~~Robotica~~ · (This post was last modified: 2013-07-04, 12:44 by Robotica.)

Yeah, hopefully Samsung, as the new owner of the fork, is usefull for xbmc users but I think they strip the former xbmc code and integrate those few proprietary libs boxee made in their own linux-based firmware.

They paid good money for just that and 40 employees. Maybe Avner sold his bubble once again..

ialand · 2013-07-04, 07:36

http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/03/boxee...sung-deal/

Boxee Cloud DVR to shut down following Samsung deal, goes dark July 10th

By Jon Fingas posted Jul 3rd, 2013 at 11:36 PM 15

If you're like us, you were wondering what impact Samsung's acquisition of Boxee would have on Boxee's Cloud DVR service. Unfortunately, we don't have good news. Boxee is shutting down the service on July 10th, and customers will lose access to their TV recordings at the same time. We're not surprised by the move, but it effectively shuts the company down within the space of a week. When Boxee's apps, the Boxee Box and the Live TV add-on are either gone or on their way out, there aren't really products left to offer -- it's all Samsung from here.

~~Ned Scott~~ · 2013-07-04, 08:10

Wow, Boxee manages one last middle finger to all its remaining users. You'd think they would at least turn on local recording via that USB port on the back of the Boxee TV, but nah, that would make sense.

RIPBIH, Boxee. You sold out to the cable companies, screwed your users multiple times, and took a dump on open source software. You won't be missed.

Jezz_X · 2013-07-04, 10:07

I know I'm going to regret saying this to Robotica but
I would seriously doubt if Samsung has any interest in the older xbmc side of things even boxee ditched it a year ago. It is more likely that they have been purchased for the programming staff and assets (read patent type stuff) that they developed for the cloud dvr stuff and putting that and its streaming into Samsung products in the future.

I would be surprised if this has anything at all to do with anything xbmc related

Jezz_X · 2013-07-04, 10:10

(2013-07-04, 08:10)Ned Scott Wrote: Wow, Boxee manages one last middle finger to all its remaining users. You'd think they would at least turn on local recording via that USB port on the back of the Boxee TV, but nah, that would make sense.

RIPBIH, Boxee. You sold out to the cable companies, screwed your users multiple times, and took a dump on open source software. You won't be missed.

Yeah Boxee has basically screwed over their customers 3 times now. I'd be surprised if anyone likes them anymore, and I would not be surprised if the boxee products stayed on retail store shelves long after they stop working. I even notice one of my local stores here in .au is still selling the old boxee box at full old retail :\

~~Robotica~~ · (This post was last modified: 2013-07-04, 12:41 by Robotica.)

(2013-07-04, 10:07)Jezz_X Wrote: I know I'm going to regret saying this to Robotica but
I would seriously doubt if Samsung has any interest in the older xbmc side of things even boxee ditched it a year ago. It is more likely that they have been purchased for the programming staff and assets (read patent type stuff) that they developed for the cloud dvr stuff and putting that and its streaming into Samsung products in the future.

I would be surprised if this has anything at all to do with anything xbmc related

I think we say the same thing... Do you know which patents boxee owns?

Jezz_X · 2013-07-04, 13:16

Well I don't know if they own any which is why I said "type stuff"

~~Robotica~~ · (This post was last modified: 2013-07-04, 14:04 by Robotica.)

I searched for boxee patens but there aren't any on that company. So samsung just bought some content deals (including a payment model to share revenue with the content provider), some copyrights and the workforce (with the knowledge of bringing GPL derivate software to embedded devices).

Shutting boxee down leaves integrating some of those functionalities in their own linux-based firmware. I think Samsung likes the way boxee did this.

Locking hardware and utilizing free software (while extending it with closed source software) is just to tempting...