January 15, 2007
Arris, Tandberg Television to Combine
by Jim Barthold
Arris has issued a
news release announcing an agreement to acquire “all outstanding Tandberg
Television shares” for about $1.214 billion by the second quarter of this year
to “produce a new company” focused on IP-based services.
“The combination of Arris and Tandberg Television is positive for the digital
media industry and a truly exceptional opportunity for both companies,” said Bob
Stanzione, chairman-CEO of Arris in a news release. “”By bringing together these
two market leaders we are able to expand on our vision to be the global leader
in the provision of digital IP infrastructure and to enable voice, video and
data to be delivered over integrated broadband networks from the content
provider to the headend to the home.”
Arris provides VoIP data broadband network equipment and Tandberg deals in the
digital video sector for advanced compression and interactive television.
Company officials were not immediately available to discuss the acquisition,
although Arris, on its Web site, said that a conference call and webcast would
be held Tuesday morning, Jan. 16.
Teresa Mastrangelo, principal analyst for Broadbandtrends.com, said that based
on the news release the announcement is “a pretty huge deal. It’s very high
profile for Arris (and) it buys Arris some longevity in being able to move into
a bigger area which is television services.”
The missing ingredient, she said, is the set-top box since neither Arris nor
Tandberg provides this piece of equipment, unlike competitors like Cisco and
Motorola.
“Tandberg has a much broader global reach than Arris does in terms of its
customer base and offers some potential for Arris to leverage its CMTS (cable
modem termination product) line as well as its voice-over-IP solutions into some
new markets,” Mastrangelo said. “Now they do have the triple play in the truest
sense. They can offer broadband, voice-over-IP and now they have television.”
The acquisition/combination mirrors industry consolidation, said Jan Christian
Opsahl, chairman of Tandberg Television, who noted in the news release that “the
combination of Arris and Tandberg Television clearly creates that market leading
supplier of voice, video and data solutions.”
Mastrangelo agreed that the deal helps Arris keep pace with Motorola, which
recently acquired Tut Systems’ IP expertise arsenal and Cisco, which bought
longtime cable vendor Scientific-Atlanta. Tandberg had been participating in the
buying frenzy when it acquired SkyStream “which was probably the leading headend
vendor for IP-based services,” she said. “They weren’t just talking to telcos,
they had a lot of operations for satellite and other types of video operators.”
Consolidation, said Mastrangelo, “was expected in the market. Arris is now able
to get that third leg, which is into the video networks, and take a broader
piece of the opportunity.”
The new combined company – name unknown as yet – will employ about 1,600 people
and serve 2,000-plus customers in more than 100 countries, the news release
said.
back |
