MobiTV files for chapter 11, finances $15.5 million to handle restructuring

MobiTV, a key video technology vendor to T-Mobile, Cable One and myriad small cable companies, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

According to FTI Consulting, a firm brought on by the Emeryville, Calif. company to oversee the restructuring process, MobiTV has obtained $15.5 million in debtor-in-possession financing to keep the lights on, the employees paid and its cloud-based video systems up and running.

The lender wasn’t specified.

FTI said the restructuring is intended to address MobiTV’s debt obligations so that it can be sold.

The company was founded 1999 and has secured $213.8 million in private funding to date.

MobiTV markets Connect, a cloud-based platform that enables pay TV operators to turn their video services into app-based solutions playable on popular connected TV devices. According to the company’s bankruptcy petition, it currently has 125 customers.

MobiTV’s technology helps power T-Mobile’s TVision, the virtual MVPD launched by the wireless company back in November. Notably, T-Mobile’s top executives didn’t mention TVision once during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call in in early February, just over three months following the big TVision launch. MobiTV’s revenue is reportedly structured on the customer uptake of the platforms it furnishes to its pay TV clients.

Cable One, meanwhile, is in the process of rolling out Sparklight TV, which is based on MobiTV tech. NextTV