Earlier today, Ericsson reached an agreement with Microsoft (News - Alert) by which Ericsson will take over Microsoft's Mediaroom business, giving Ericsson a powerful new TV solution. While the exact terms of the deal aren't as yet clear, the deal makes the interesting step of putting Ericsson on top in terms of the IPTV (News - Alert) and multiscreen solution market.

With the acquisition of Mediaroom--once the deal closes during the second half of 2013 if all goes as expected--Ericsson (News - Alert) will have a market share of more than 25 percent for the IPTV and multiscreen market. By 2013, the IPTV and multiscreen market will represent, at last report, 76 million subscribers with that number set to reach 105 million by 2015. Revenue, meanwhile, is expected to reach $32 billion by the end of this year, and by 2015, should hit around $45 billion.

Mediaroom may well be in better hands with Ericsson anyway. Ericsson's senior vice president and head of business unit support solutions Per Borgklint offered up some remarks that show the degree of synergy that Mediaroom and Ericsson would have together, saying, "Mediaroom is the leading platform for video distribution deployed with the world's largest IPTV operators. This strategic acquisition positions Ericsson as an industry leader thanks to the skills and experiences of the talented people of Mediaroom combined with Ericsson's end to end service capabilities."

Mediaroom powers a large chunk of current television services worldwide, with users ranging from Deutsche Telekom's Enterain to TELUS Optik TV to even AT&T's (News - Alert) U-verse. Ericsson, meanwhile, will now hold a large chunk of that particular market, which is one that's in a rapid state of flux.

So why did Microsoft hand over Mediaroom to Ericsson, and with it hand over a majority share of a market as big as this one? Some reports suggest that Microsoft is moving most of its home entertainment focus to the Xbox, so having Mediaroom around was mostly a resource sink on a redundant venture. Plus, if Xbox goes as far as it's expected to when the newest version comes out, that may well leave Mediaroom in the lurch anyway. Strictly speculative, of course, but if Xbox really does make it that big -- why not? Microsoft's designs on total living room dominance have been seen for some time now--it may well be that many of those media systems will be behind the proverbial eight ball.

Indeed, both Ericsson and Microsoft may well be seeing the same thing, the rapid evolution of the television consumer and the relevant behaviors therein. With cable cutters on the march, cable nevers showing up, and even full-on zero-TV households starting to crop up, the concept of television has never been so diverse and so dynamic as it is now. This year's television landscape may bear little resemblance to the landscape of next year, and that's going to potentially make this year's front-runners next year's also-rans. Only time will tell if Ericsson can take the ball it's just picked up and run with it, or if Microsoft may have the right idea after all.