entertained and informed type division fate acquired by cisco systems predecessor nds group ltd. founded 1989 headquarters staines united kingdom key people dave habiger ceo abe peled executive chairman products videoguard conditional access videoguard connect drm mediahighway set top box software broadband iptv xtv digital video recorders dvrs ott unified headend gateways interactive tv number of employees 5 500 as of mar 2012 4 200 technical parent cisco systems subsidiaries jungo castup siventure website www.nds.com footnotes references other statistics 12 2011 ca drm 125 million pay tv households middleware 214 million devices digital video recorders 47 million deployed ; cisco videoscape formerly nds group ltd. is a cisco acquired development group which develops software for the pay tv industry including cable satellite and others . nds group was established in israel in 1988 as an israeli start up company . 1 it was acquired by cisco in 2012 . the company is currently headquartered in staines united kingdom . filling the executive chairman and ceo roles at nds is abe peled with former ceo dave habiger having left in 2012 . the company s major product is the videoguard conditional access system which is used by more than 85 leading pay tv operators around the world . nds technology includes end to end connections for satellite broadband iptv hybrid ott and epgs . it has launched videoguard connect the drm for pay tv designed to help tv operators to seamlessly extend their pay tv services to connected media devices enabling secure ingestion delivery and consumption of premium content over both managed and ott networks while maintaining subscription privileges across devices . nds also provides advanced advertising professional services and system integration services . new ways to secure content on pcs tablets and other devices are displayed at ibc and ces . cisco systems announced the acquisition of the company in march 2012 . 2 it was later acquired successfully and in 2014 its name was changed into videoscape becoming a part of cisco . contents 1 history 1.1 acquisitions 2 legal issues 2.1 israeli tax investigation 2.2 canal plus lawsuit 2.3 echostar lawsuit 2.4 bbc panorama 2.5 australia financial review allegations 3 products and customers 4 see also 5 references history edit nds israel headquarters in har hotzvim jerusalem the company was established in 1988 as news datacom ndc by dov rubin jonathan yoni hashkes michael dick & yishai sered and soon joined by mickey cohen & gershon baron in partnership with news corporation and the weizmann institute a university and research institute in rehovot israel . the company was based on technology developed by the israeli cryptographer adi shamir and his partner amos fiat . 1 3 shamir and fiat devised a coding solution for the encryption system used in satellite broadcasts . 4 in 1992 one year after finalizing its product the company was acquired by its primary customer news corp for 15 million and renamed news digital systems nds . 1 in 1999 the company began trading as a public company on the nasdaq stock exchange . in 2009 permira and news corporation announced a 3.6 billion arrangement for buying the public holding in nds turning it into a privately held company . 5 6 acquisitions edit in december 2000 nds acquired orbis technology a british company which develops software for interactive betting in order to strengthen its application portfolio for interactive tv . 7 in march 2008 orbis technology acquired electracade ltd a uk based developer of online interactive games for 2.6 million . 8 in july 2010 orbis technology acquired alphameric solutions a provider of technology to the bookmaking marketplace from alphameric plc for 15.5 million . in february 2011 orbis technology was sold by nds for 208 million in a management buyout backed by private equity firm vitruvian partners . 9 in june 2002 nds acquired visionik a s a danish company which provides digital interactive broadcast technology . in august 2003 nds acquired all the intellectual property assets of a french interactive tv technology company interactif delta production s.a. 10 on 16 december 2003 nds acquired the mediahighway middleware business from canal technologies a subsidiary of thomson sa and licensed certain related patents from thomson sa for a total consideration of 60 million . 11 in october 2006 nds acquired danish game design company ite . 12 on december 4 2006 nds acquired jungo which provides software for residential gateways for an aggregate consideration of up to 107.5 million in cash . 13 on august 7 2007 nds acquired castup inc which provides an end to end solution for the acquisition processing distributing serving and monetizing of rich media content over ip particularly video and audio over the internet . 14 on march 15 2012 cisco systems announced its intent to acquire nds group . it was later acquired successfully and in 2014 its name was changed into videoscape becoming a part of cisco . legal issues edit israeli tax investigation edit in 1996 nds was investigated by israeli authorities for allegations of tax irregularities . none was proven but nds later paid a 3m settlement to close the case . 15 canal plus lawsuit edit in 2002 canal plus accused nds of extracting the userrom code from the mediaguard cards and leaking it onto the internet . 16 according to the guardian the nds laboratory in haifa israel had been working on breaking the seca produced mediaguard smartcards used by canal itv digital and other non murdoch owned tv companies throughout europe . canal plus brought a 3 billion lawsuit against nds but later dropped the action . news corporation agreed to buy canal plus s struggling italian operation telepiu . 17 18 echostar lawsuit edit echostar sued nds for 1 billion for piracy and copyright infringement of the echostar viewing card codes and for aiding the distribution and supply of pirate echostar viewing cards for the echostar owned dish tv . echostar alleged that in the 90 s nds was responsible for the compromise of echostar s satellite television programming platform through the posting of code on the dr7 website . nds vigorously defended the allegations made against it establishing that nds played no part in the compromise of echostar s security system . in 2008 a jury in california convicted nds of violating the federal communications act and california penal code cleared nds of other charges and awarded 1 500 in damages . 19 in august 2010 the ninth circuit stated in its decision that echostar did not succeed on any significant issue or achieve any of the benefit it sought in bringing suit under the communications act . the ninth circuit awarded nds us 18 million and concluded that there is no question that nds successfully defended against all of echostar s claims based on or related to its theory that nds was responsible for the compromise of echostar s satellite television programming security system . in february 2011 the ninth circuit further stated nds was the prevailing party in this litigation and that echostar fails to meet the legal definition of a prevailing party on any of its claims . in january 2012 the supreme court of the united states of america denied a petition to hear a challenge by echostar . echostar and nds agreed that the terms for satisfying the judgment should be met by 9 march 2012 . on 9 march 2012 nds received from echostar the remaining balance of us 18 935 399 .49 in full satisfaction of the final judgment including district court fees and costs appellate court fees and costs and all interest . bbc panorama edit on 26 march 2012 the bbc programme panorama broadcast that nds employed computer hacking to undermine the business of ondigital . 20 at the time ondigital was the primary tv rival in britain of bskyb a news corporation company . the accusations arise from emails obtained by the bbc and an interview with lee gibling the operator of a hacking website who claims he was paid up to 60 000 per year by ray adams nds head of security . 21 uk broadcasting watchdog ofcom is to investigate these claims . 22 these claims are vigorously denied by nds and newscorp . 23 australia financial review allegations edit on 27 march 2012 the australia financial review published further allegations about nds involvement in hacking the systems of competitors . 24 the australia financial review also published online a sample of 14 400 emails allegedly taken from the computer of former nds head of security ray adams . 25 the investigation by the paper alleges that nds illegally undermined rivals austar optus and foxtel at a time when parent company news corporation was moving to take control of the australian pay tv industry . in response to these allegations australia s communication minister steven conroy called for a police investigation . 26 in response to the allegations news limited the australian arm of news corporation released the following statement the story is full of factual inaccuracies flawed references fanciful conclusions and baseless accusations which have been disproved in overseas courts citation needed products and customers edit as of december 2011 nds videoguard ca and drm were deployed in more than 125 million digital pay tv households . mediahighway set top box software has been deployed in more than 214 million set top boxes . xtv pvr dvr technology is used by more than 20 operators in more than 47 million set top boxes . it is more commonly identifiable under the names sky in bskyb and directv in directv . nds also supplies interactive tv applications platforms and development tools . nds has over 5000 employees with offices in the uk israel india united states spain germany brazil russia singapore france south korea china hong kong and australia . leading customers include directv in the usa bskyb sky italia sky deutschland sky m xico sky brasil sky network television in new zealand bein in mena viasat in sweden norway & denmark totaltv foxtel in australia china central television cctv yes and hot in israel skylife canalsat in france astro in malaysia cablevision in the usa indovision in indonesia tata sky airtel hathway telecom italia den in india and truevisions in thailand . see also edit conditional access interactive television economy of israel science and technology in israel silicon wadi references edit a b c from underdogs to tigers the rise and growth of the software industry in brazil china india ireland and israel . ashish arora alfonso gambardella oxford university press 2006 . p. 84 cisco nds acquisition 2012 david brinn . the israeli algorithm inside your satellite box . june 05 2005 weizmann institute rakes in royalties uk permira and news corp. complete nds acquisition news corp. to de list nds . globes . nds acquires orbis technology a leader in software for interactive betting businesswire dec 1 2000 orbis acquires leading uk online interactive games developer electracade ltd businesswire dec 2008 openbet in 208m management buy out nds acquires certain assets of interactive tv technology company idp in france . nds acquires canal technologies mediahighway middleware business from thomson s.a. businesswire sep 2003 nds acquires danish game design company ite pressbox 02.10.2006 nds acquires jungo light reading ; december 4 2006 nds buys castup as fiscal year profit and revenue rise globes august 7 2007 http www.eiu.com index.asp layout vwarticlevw3 & article id 1575537357 & region id 1510000351 & channel id 180004018 & category id 280004028 & refm vwcat & page title article & rf 0 cassy john ; paul murphy 2002 03 13 . how codebreakers cracked the secrets of the smart card . london the guardian . retrieved 2008 02 25 . vivendi settles row with nds . london the guardian . 2003 05 02 . retrieved 2008 05 20 . tryhorn chris 2002 04 30 . murdoch lines up sky italia . london the guardian . retrieved 2008 05 20 .