Cisco prepares for TV-on-demand services with new acquisition

Cisco Systems is buying a private on-demand television company for $92 million in cash, as part of the network-gear maker's bid to become a consumer brand that delivers television, movies and other video on the Internet, an Associated Press report said.

The report said Arroyo Video Solutions, which was founded in 2002 and had 44 employees in California and Utah, billed itself as a company "revolutionizing the way people watch TV."

The California-based company created software that helped computer servers store and send digital video, instead of keeping the data on disks, the report said.

The report also said the acquisition, expected to be completed by October 31, should make it simpler for Cisco's routers, switches and other networking products to store, send or receive video online.

Cisco and other companies wanted to specialize in on-demand video distribution because Internet users were becoming accustomed to watching television or movie trailers online, the report said.