Triple-play and quad-play will boost newly merged ARRIS and C-COR

December 18, 2007 - The acquisition of C-COR Inc. by ARRIS, completed December 14, will create a leading broadband solutions company with combined sales of over $1.2 billion over the past twelve months, ARRIS has declared.

It also expands the ARRIS product portfolio and addressable market, and creates a global, technologically diverse team with a broader and stronger platform from which to drive portfolio expansion.  ARRIS and C-COR expect to benefit from the macro-trend towards higher bandwidth demand and the need for video management solutions. These, in turn, are driven by migration to triple-play and quad-play among cable operators, telecom service providers and other Pay TV platforms (which eventually has to include satellite).

ARRIS is a leading supplier of data-over-cable solutions including Cable Modem Termination Systems and E-MTAs (Embedded Multimedia Terminal Adaptor). The company has helped pioneer channel bonding and Modular CMTS technologies and had already begun its assault on the traditional cable video space prior to its courtship of C-COR, with a universal edge-QAM solution that has already been selected by Comcast for use in a Switched Digital Video roll-out.

C-COR has a range of broadband access solutions including headend equipment, nodes and amplifiers, an OSS portfolio that includes automated workforce management, and Video on Demand and advertising insertion technologies. The two companies’ product lines are complementary in the sense that they do not overlap, they are targeted at largely the same customers (cable operators), and because increasingly, cable video networks are going to converge around IP, including IPTV over the last mile using DOCSIS data-over-cable technologies.

The ‘merger’ deal went ahead after 98 per cent of share-votes from ARRIS and C-COR stockholders favoured the transaction. "I am extremely pleased to announce that we have concluded this merger,” declared ARRIS Chairman and CEO Bob Stanzione. “This is a momentous step for our shareholders, customers and employees who have made this possible.

“As we look forward, we believe the combined company will have the scale, reach and technological depth to drive innovative solutions in the market and garner a higher share of our customers' spending. Today's announcement is just the beginning on some of the important milestones we have set for ourselves."

This is the second attempt by ARRIS to secure a big-name acquisition this year. Its proposed deal for TANDBERG Television was aborted in the spring after the company was outbid by Ericsson.