Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM), the wireless tech licensing and R&D giant, has quietly bought online, IPTV and mobile video tech provider Digital Fountain, according to Dan Rayburn, and later confirmed by the company. DF, based in Fremont, CA, first made its mark in providing the tech to national defense agencies, and from there on moved to mobile, online and IPTV sector. Besides its main product “DF Raptor” which allows companies to send digital media over any kind of connection, it added a CDN in 2007, but with heavy competition from much bigger players, was a marginal player at best. It says customers include Cisco, Sirius XM, Sony, Nokia, Adobe, and others.

From the looks of it, it was mainly an asset sale so likely the price was small. Qualcomm said in the statement to Rayburn that it will retain a team of “seven key engineers that will continue to support the technology and existing Digital Fountain customers. The team will be located in Qualcomm’s Santa Clara campus. Also, that team will be led by Mike Luby, Digital Fountain’s founder and CTO, who will report to Qualcomm’s CTO.”