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US equipment vendor Cisco is looking to sell its Scientific-Atlanta set-top box business, according to reports in the New York Post, quoting unnamed sources.

The impending sale is believed to be due to worsening margins and the emergence of new devices such as connected TVs and games consoles that enable the streaming of IP video without a dedicated set-top box being required.

Scientific-Atlanta was founded in 1951 by a group of engineers from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and was purchased by Cisco in 2006 for nearly US$ 7bn.

Cisco has since integrated technology developed by Scientific-Atlanta into its Videoscape platform, which allows the delivery of content through the cloud to smartphones and tablets.

Cisco revealed last year that it was closing one of its key set-top box manufacturing plants in Mexico to Foxconn Technology Group, and slashing approximately 6,500 jobs from its global headcount, as part of efforts to cut its annual operating expenses by approximately US$ 1bn.

This focus on costs appears to be already delivering results - the company recently posted record revenues of US$ 11.5bn for the quarterly period which ended January 28th, 2011 - up 10.8% from one year earlier.

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