UK video tech vendor Amino Technologies has revealed itself to be one of the bidders in Tuesday’s virtual bankruptcy-court auction for MobiTV.
“Whether Amino's bid is successful will be decided by the court following an auction process, to be held on 11 May,” Amino’s board of directors said in a statement sent to shareholders. “Once the auction has been completed, a hearing before the court to request approval of all aspects of the sale to the winning bidder is scheduled for 21 May.”
Both Emerybille, Calif.-headquartered MobiTV and Cambridge-based Amino are well known players within the cadre of companies that sell technologies to the global pay TV market, and they have done some business together before.
MobiTV provides an SaaS solution called MobiTV Connect that has proven popular to smaller U.S. cable operators looking to downsize their video offerings into app-based services that work on standard off-the-shelf OTT hardware like Roku. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware back in March.
The tech company listed $19 million in assets vs. $75 million in debt at the time. It’s biggest customer, T-Mobile, provided it with a $15.5 million loan so it could keep operating as it restructured. MobiTV lists 76 full-time salaried employees on its payroll, as well as 10 hourly workers.
It has not been publicly revealed as to how many other bidders are engaged in MobiTV’s auction, or who the other bidders are. A document released Monday by the Delaware court overseeing the auction said the “debtors received more than one qualified bid."
In addition to T-Mobile's recently scuttled TVision service, MobiTV’s technology is also being used in Sparklight TV, the new app-based video platform being developed by Cable One. The company’s smaller telco cable operator clients include Mississippi’s C-Spire, Windstream, Vast Broadband and MCTV, as well as the National Cable TV Cooperative, which represents more than 850 small cable operators.
According to earlier published reports, there was movement in the NCTC to assemble a bid to buy MobiTV. It’s unclear as to whether that group is part of Tuesday’s auction process.
