Video indexing firm Digitalsmiths has raised a $12.5 million third funding round as the business of data storage and content delivery are joining analytics and ad targeting as the favorite investment for tech and media bankers.

Flip’s demise was the headline grabber in John Chambers’ effort to show his leadership skills to the Cisco (NSDQ: CSCO) board and investors. But the Cisco chairman and CEO’s inability to deliver on the expensive, multi-pronged move into the consumer space took down internal efforts as well as high-profile acquisitions,…

Cisco (NSDQ: CSCO) is closing down its Flip Cam business and is pulling back on certain areas on its consumer business. Instead, CEO and Chairman John Chambers says Cisco will concentrate more specifically on what it considers the basics: core routing, switching and services; collaboration; architectures; and video.

Plugging a gap in its “TV Everywhere” lineup, Cisco Systems (NSDQ: CSCO) announced plans Friday to acquire privately held Inlet Technologies, a provider of adaptive-bit-rate video processing platforms, for $95 million. Inlet’s video-encoding technology adapts the quality of a video stream based on real-time network conditions as well as the…

Cisco (NSDQ: CSCO) chairman/CEO John Chambers unveiled Videoscape, an ambitious new architecture for video that knits together the home network, cloud-based delivery and any device, in a press conference Wednesday at the Consumer Electronics Show. Australian telecom firm Telstra is already on board as a client.

Oprah Winfrey is the Midas of marketing, her endorsements the key to everything from countless books making the bestseller list to electing a president. But even she may not have the magic to move units of the new videophone product Umi.

Today, Cisco (NSDQ: CSCO) unveiled its home telepresence solution called Umi (pronounced you-me, get it?) . For those of us who aren’t familiar with Cisco’s use of the term telepresence, it’s a term they coined to describe the very impressive (and very expensive) enterprise immersive video conferencing experience they provide…

Cisco (NSDQ: CSCO) is in the process of acquiring ExtendMedia, a company that specializes in managing online video content. The space has seen some consolidation lately and with the growth of mobile video, the rate of acquisitions is likely to increase rapidly. The terms of the deal were undisclosed. Cisco…

Updated: Apple’s decision to rename its iPhone operating system “iOS” once again has it using a trademark owned by Cisco Systems (NSDQ: CSCO)—but this time the two companies won’t be fighting over it. Cisco, which has called its network infrastructure software “IOS” for more than a decade, tells us it…

BlackArrow, which sells ad systems designed to reach what the company calls users of “new-TV” (DVR customers, mobile TV etc.) has raised $20 million in a third round of funding. The round was led by NDS Group, which provides DRM and other technology to digital pay TV providers. The companies…

Xobni, which sells a Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Outlook plug-in that helps users keep track of their mail and contacts, has raised $16.2 million in a third round of funding. The startup—one of several selling e-mail add-ons that have recently raised rounds—adds a host of features to Outlook, including faster search,…

When we last checked in with *Cisco* Eos, the white label social network platform was still a one-chord band of sorts, with Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) as its only customer and a relatively small one at that. WMG’s expansion in August took its Eos use from two artists to…

ViVu, a startup that offers webcast production and management services, has picked up $3 million in its first round of funding. Inventus Capital Partners led the round, with participation from seed round-backers DFJ and Quest Ventures; Sunnyvale, Calif.-based ViVu raised $800,000 in that round, per an SEC filing. ViVu’s Java-…

Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) signed on for the Cisco (NSDQ: CSCO) Eos white-label social networking service in a dip-the-toe way in January. Now the label is putting the whole foot in the water by expanding its deal beyond sites for two artists to five, promising to add a dozen…

Whether you like it or not, Twitter is changing the way people communicate, and digital media and technology companies are eager to harness this new tool. Every week, we’ll look at a different Twitterer from the media, entertainment or technology world to see how adept he or she is with…

Cisco (NSDQ: CSCO) is making an even bigger bet on consumer electronics in a direct way than it has ever done before: it is buying Pure Digital, the maker of the popular Flip video cameras, for about $590 million in an all-stock deal. In addition to the price, Cisco will…

Yes, Cisco Systems (NSDQ: CSCO) has money to spend but not on consumer device acquisitions, according to CEO John Chambers —which seems to rule out BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (NSDQ: RIMM) but isn’t likely to stop the speculation. Chambers told the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet conference in San…

Despite the gloomy economy, Cisco (NSDQ: CSCO) has decided the timing is take an equity stake in Digitalsmiths, the B2B video tech firm. Details about the amount of the investment and the stake were undisclosed. The deal follows Digitalsmith’s $12 million second round, which it secured in November. The Research…

Blackarrow, a heavily backed developer of dynamic cable advertising has raised a big $20 million second round from past backers *Cisco Systems*, Inc., *Comcast* Interactive Capital, *Intel* Capital, Mayfield Fund and Polaris Venture Partners. The company has previously raised about $18 million in two parts of what they’re calling just…