This morning an article was posted to The Street.com which announced the official entrance of Cisco Systems into the digital signage market via the acquisition of Tivella. Whoa..... if ever a validation of the market was to be made, this is it.
I guess this is really no suprise. I've been to several tradeshows of late only to find Cisco teatering on the edge of a true digital signage product via their new ip telephony and training applications. They have also drilled me with questions and I had a suspicion their interest was beyond just learning about the space.
Now I don't know much about Tivella but a quick read of their site tells me their product is more geared towards the Corporate Campus. It is also built from the ground up on Cisco equipment and technology. Another check mark on the "makes sense" scale for a Cisco acquisition.
My conclusion on this announcement is that the consolidation game is on for real in the Digital Signage space. The race has been on years now but the big boys are going to start coming hard. We only have to look at NEC, Planar and now Cisco to see that writing on the wall. This is definitely a good thing for the industry. More money, more talent and certainly more visibility will propel our products and opportunities at an even faster rate than before.
If you would like to read the article about the acquisition, you can find it here
