Tata Communications has announced that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire 100% stake in BitGravity, a content delivery network it had earlier invested $11.5 million of convertible devt in. In all, BitGravity had raised $13.5 million in two rounds of funding from angel investors and Tata Communications. The amount being paid for acquisition has not been disclosed. BitGravity, founded in 2006, is headquartered in Buringame, California. It competes with Akamai and Limelight; Limelight has a partnership with Indian telecom major Bharti Airtel. Publishers use Content Delivery Networks like BitGravity to provide a consistent speed and faster speeds of access (and hence advertising delivery) to consumers, apart from providing alternate routes for access, in case any particular series of links goes down. CDN's provide an optimized peering arrangement, bypassing peer-to-peer commercial arrangements between ISPs, which tend to be optimised for cost, not speed of content delivery. Upon acquisition, via Tata Communications (Netherlands) B.V. Bitgravity will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Communications. Tata had earlier, in 2008, entered into a strategic alliance with BitGravity, and was providing services to companies like NDTV, IAH Games, Quick Heal Technologies, and Nimbus Communications (for the live streaming of Cricket matches). Update: Just noticed that StreamingMedia had reported this deal a few days ago. It's now official. According to StreamingMedia, BitGravity "offered some of the lowest pricing in the market, without commits, and really focused their pitch on being the low cost leader in the market, which is simply not sustainable…
