investment

Live Internet broadcasting service provider, Ustream, announced late Monday that it has secured $75 million in a Series B funding round that was led by Softbank of Japan, and that additional funding commitments are pending from other investors in the US and Asia. The company says that the funding will help it continue its growth in the US, and allow it to expand its presence in the Asia Pacific region where it is hoping to pursue opportunities in Japan, China, Korea and India.

The BBC on Wednesday unveiled a new digital initiative, called @North, that is designed to boost the interactive/multiplatform TV industry in the north of England, the region in which Salford--the city to which a number of BBC departments, including Future Media & Technology and Children's, are scheduled to move in 2011--is located.

Sezmi, a company that has developed a set-top box-based offering which it bills as "combining traditional TV content, movies and Internet video in a single, easy-to-use product and service," said Monday that it has secured $25 million in new funding from new and existing investors. The company--which last year announced that it had raised $33 million in an earlier funding round--also announced Monday that it has made its "all-in-one personalized television service" available via a public pilot in Los Angeles, in preparation for a nationwide launch next year.

The Kudelski Group announced Friday that it has successfully completed its tender offer to acquire the Class A shares of interactive TV middleware and advanced advertising technology provider, OpenTV, that it does not already own for $1.55. According to the company, when its tender offer expired on November 12th, OpenTV shareholders had tendered approximately 56,382,588 shares (including 8,277,113 shares subject to guaranteed delivery procedures), representing approximately 60% of the Class A shares not already owned by Kudelski. "Upon the acquisition of those shares validly tendered and not withdrawn," Kudelski says, it will own approximately 91% of the voting rights in OpenTV.

Here is a round-up of some other interactive TV-related stories we didn't have room for in this issue: