Contrary to what the media has been reporting, Intel is not shutting down its Digital Home Group and departing the Smart TV business. They are, however, shutting down their retail segment and no longer pursuing the Digital TV market category. Intel will continue to create the same System-on-Chips that our GameTree TV platform has been based on and is merging their Digital Home Group with their Tablet Group. These changes do not adversely impact TransGaming nor our GameTree TV roadmap since our work with Intel was based around the IPTV and Cable TV market segments.
The reality is that Intel is amalgamating their Digital Home Group with their Tablet Group to create one large team that can then, through a single combined effort, more effectively and efficiently work on their consumer electronics initiatives. Through this amalgamation, tablets, ultrabooks, smart phones, set-top boxes (and related Smart TV products) will all share a common hardware and software architecture based on the Intel Atom core System-on-Chip. The benefit of this integration is a single development investment that can be monetized across many devices and a range of customer categories. More granularly, a combined and larger team can now better focus their attention to the hardware and software they are developing which means higher quality products, with faster bug resolution, and greater responsiveness to customers and ecosystem partners (such as TransGaming). Thus, to be completely clear, Intel is not leaving the Smart TV business.
Intel has made a conscious decision to abandon the Digital TV and retail market. This decision arises from the fact that this particular category of the Smart TV market is already dominated by ARM Ltd., MIPS Technologies Inc., or proprietary chipsets developed by the TV manufacturers themselves. Intel was experiencing limited market traction in this category and their strategic decision to discontinue support for Digital TV and the retail segment allows them to better focus their efforts on other Smart TV categories.
It is important to reinforce that Intel remains committed to the IPTV and cable segments, the two market segments that matter to TransGaming, and both General Managers, Keith Wehmeyer and Bob Ferreira, respectively, who operate these divisions will continue to manage these divisions. TransGaming has outstanding relationships with Keith and Bob and we have their continued support. For the most part, nothing changes for TransGaming with respect to our relationship with Intel and, in fact, we believe that this integration of two divisions expands our opportunities for GameTree TV while making it easier to support the IPTV and cable customers we expect to be signing in the coming months. I spoke with the CEO of Free to ask him for his perspective on these changes at Intel and he is in agreement with me that this news has no impact to their business. I expect that all other IPTV and cable customers and prospects will echo the same sentiment.
Regardless of this news with Intel, our strategy has always been to expand GameTree TV to obtain a broader share of the market. We are in talks with television manufacturers to provide them with a version of GameTree TV specifically for their televisions and chipsets. We’ve also been receiving significant interest from a range of non-Intel architecture based companies who want GameTree TV to become part of the ecosystem they are offering to their customers. I remain optimistic that GameTree TV will continue to achieve market adoption and success and we, as a company, remain committed to establishing GameTree TV as THE premier on-demand interactive entertainment platform for Smart TV.
I hope this addresses the concerns in the market place and provides our various stakeholders with factual information. Should you have any further questions, please reach out to our investor relations or public relations teams as follows:
Investor Relations Canada:
Jean-Francois (JF) Dube
+1.877.848.8790
investors@transgaming.com
Investor Relations United States:
Adam P. Lowensteiner
Wolfe Axelrod Weinberger Associates LLC
+1 212 370 4500
x25
adam@wolfeaxelrod.com
Public Relations:
Chris Ulbrich
Lewis PR
+1.415.793.9067
TransGaming@lewispr.com
Sincerely,
Vikas Gupta
CEO & President