Qualcomm Absorbs Digital Fountain’s Streaming Media Technologies

Qualcomm, with its abiding interest in streaming video technologies, has acquired key assets of Digital Fountain, a Freemont, CA, startup that has developed software to optimize digital media transmitted over any network.

Qualcomm made no announcement about its purchase, which was reported by PE Hub and several blogs. The San Diego wireless technology giant did not immediately respond to a request for comment. For its part, Digital Fountain posted a brief message on its web site that confirmed the acquisition but provides no details about the deal.

The Business of Video blog at streamingmedia.com, which apparently broke the story last week, says Qualcomm acquired a team of seven engineers led by Mike Luby, Digital Fountain’s founder and CTO. The article said that they will work at Qualcomm’s campus in Santa Clara, CA., and continue to support Digital Fountain’s customers, which include Cisco Systems, Sumitomo Electric Networks, Scientific Atlanta, Northrop Grumman, Sirius Satellite Radio, XM Radio, Sony, Nokia, and Adobe.

Digital Fountain says its software eliminates limitations to streaming digital media over public or private networks, enabling the media stream to flow faster and more efficiently. Mobile carriers, IPTV providers, and defense agencies throughout the world use the technology.

The startup, founded in 1998, has reportedly raised $60 million in funding. Digital Fountain identifies 12 venture capital firms and high-tech companies as its investors, including Waltham, MA-based Matrix Partners, San Francisco, CA-based Granite Ventures, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Adobe Systems, Honda, and BT.

Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.