Boxee is just one of many players that are trying to hasten along the cord cutting trend by bringing media streaming to the living room. After a few years of operating as an independent company, Boxee has reportedly been bought up.
Isreali site The Marker (as translated by The Verge) reports that Samsung has acquired Boxee for $30 million. The company is expected to keep everybody at Boxee on as employees and business will continue as usual.
But why Samsung? Well, the Korean electronics manufacturer has been aggressively pushing its Smart TV line for a few years now. With Boxee in tow, it could implement the company’s technology into its own Smart TV line.
All of this is merely speculation for now though. Both Boxee and Samsung have yet to confirm the news. It wouldn’t be too surprising, however, to see Samsung take this as a chance to better differentiate itself from competitors like Google TV. With Boxee, it also has an instantly recognizable brand to tap into.
Beyond Samsung’s own efforts, we’re also left to wonder about the fate of the Boxee hardware itself. Will Samsung allow Boxee to keep on selling its own hardware under the Boxee brand, or will it just ditch that part of the business? Will it sell Boxee machines with Samsung branding? There are a lot of places where this could go, and we won’t know for sure until Boxee or Samsung say something.
We’ll continue to keep our ear to the ground, and will update this story should either company confirm the sale.
UPDATE: Samsung confirmed to Mashable that it has acquired “key talent and assets” from Boxee.