Is the IPTV Market Driving a Telecom M&A Surge?

Along with my IPO resurgence thesis, one of my favorite 2007 themes is the Return o' Telecom, or at least of some parts of that broken business. Further food for thought on that theme comes from a new iSuppli report predicting an M&A "surge" in IPTV-related gear.

Communications infrastructure equipment OEMs are engaging in a spate of Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) in order to restructure themselves into one-stop shops that can sell the telcos everything they need to compete in the booming Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) market, according to iSuppli Corp.

At stake for these OEMs is a market for IPTV telco equipment that is expected to grow to $22.1 billion in 2011, up from $9 billion in 2007. The attached figure presents iSuppli’s forecast of worldwide telco spending on IPTV equipment.

While IPTV has myriad critics -- Andrew? -- there seems little doubt that there will be continuing company-buying this year by panicky infrastructure OEMs.