In a move to beef up its expertise in Internet-based TV technology, Sweden's Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson has made an unsolicited offer to acquire Tandberg Television of Norway.

Ericsson offered to pay 9.8 billion Swedish kroner ($1.4 billion) in cash for Tandberg in a deal announced Monday, topping an earlier bid by Arris Group of Atlanta, Georgia.

Ericsson is one of several vendors vying to sell IPTV (Internet Protocol television) equipment to cable and telecom companies, allowing them to offer interactive TV broadcasts, video-on-demand and other multimedia services to the home over broadband connections.

Telecom operators are particularly keen to roll out IPTV service to generate new revenue, as their circuit-switched telephone business is eclipsed by low-cost VOIP (voice over IP) service.

Tandberg sells video encoding and compression equipment, with an emphasis on MPEG-4, as well as products for delivering interactive and on-demand video. It employs around 870 people, including about 370 video and software engineers.

Tandberg described Ericsson's bid as unsolicited and said it would review the offer before commenting. In January, it agreed to be acquired by Arris for 96 Norwegian kronor ($15.69) per share -- 10 kronor less than Monday's offer by Ericsson.