Comcast XFINITY TV → Re: [STB] Cisco thinking of getting out of the set-top box busin

With the recent change of leadership of Motorola Mobility's Home division (»www.lightreading.com/doc ··· lr_cable ), there's talk once again that Google may be looking to sell the unit:

Who's Angling for Motorola's Cable Unit?
By Jeff Baumgartner, Light Reading Cable - June 29, 2012
»www.lightreading.com/blo ··· lr_cable

According to an article today on the Light Reading Cable site, it looks like Google may put Motorola Mobility's cable unit up for sale as early as this fall now:

Google Preps Sale of Motorola Home
By Jeff Baumgartner, Light Reading Cable - August 6, 2012
»www.lightreading.com/doc ··· lr_cable

Well, from this article on the Light Reading Cable site today, wherever Motorola Mobility's cable unit finally ends up, at least it looks like they intend to continue to do business with Comcast:

Motorola Still Tight With Comcast
By Jeff Baumgartner, Light Reading Cable - August 22, 2012
»www.lightreading.com/doc ··· lr_cable

EDIT: Link to the press release: »www.prnewswire.com/news- ··· 825.html

EDIT2: The story on CED Magazine's site: »www.cedmagazine.com/news ··· motorola

From this article on the CED Magazine site today, it certainly does look like Cisco intends to continue to do STB business in the future with Comcast:

Cisco signs on for Comcast RDK
By Mike Robuck, CED Magazine - October 5, 2012
»www.cedmagazine.com/news ··· cast-rdk

An article on the Light Reading Cable site today about all the STB vendors that have now licensed Comcast's Reference Design Kit (RDK):

Cisco, Humax & Technicolor Join Comcast's Crew
By Jeff Baumgartner, Light Reading Cable - October 10, 2012
»www.lightreading.com/doc ··· lr_cable

Well, I thought this was strange, as Pace has already provided some of the main X1 platform boxes to Comcast, as the article says: "Comcast said Pace was instrumental in developing the RDK by helping the service provider launch its XG1 multi-tuner video gateway in support of the X1 service."

However, I guess there are a few more specs in the RDK that Pace may have to formally obtain a license for.

Pace licenses RDK set-top design kit from Comcast
By Dan O'Shea, FierceCable - October 17, 2012
»www.fiercecable.com/stor ··· 12-10-17

OK, now Intel has officially joined the Comcast RDK club:

Intel Licenses Reference Design Kit from Comcast to Speed Development and Deployment of Set-Top Box Solutions
First Silicon Deployment Uses Intel Puma and Intel Atom Processor CE4200
Intel Press Release - October 24, 2012
»newsroom.intel.com/commu ··· olutions

On the Light Reading Cable site yesterday:

Could An Arris-Motorola Marriage Work?
By Jeff Baumgartner, Light Reading Cable - November 8, 2012
»www.lightreading.com/blo ··· lr_cable

A report this morning that Google has set a deadline of today to secure bids for Motorola Mobility's Home unit, with ARRIS, Pace and Technicolor expected to be some of the bidders:

Google Sets Deadline for Motorola Home Bids
By Jeff Baumgartner, Light Reading Cable - December 7, 2012
»www.lightreading.com/doc ··· lr_cable

As it says in the LRC article:

The TiVo factor
One big question heading into this part of the process is the overhang created by TiVo's pending patent litigation with Motorola, which is taking place in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas Texarkana Division.

On Wednesday, the judge in the case, Rodney Gilstrap, issued the claim construction brief, a critical step in which the court interprets the language of TiVo's intellectual property, including TiVo's key Multimedia Time Warping System patent. After that, the parties can either settle or prepare for a court clash that's anticipated to get underway in May 2013.

That overhang is significant because TiVo has been successful in winning court battles or scoring lucrative settlements. It's not yet known how or if Google will factor the pending litigation with TiVo into the terms of a Motorola asset sale, or if it intends to settle the TiVo issue before moving the sales process to its final phases.

Well, then, maybe "if you can't beat them, then eat them" :

TiVo: Time is on Their Side, Google Acquisition Conceivable, Says Janney
By Tiernan Ray, Barron's - December 6, 2012
»blogs.barrons.com/techtr ··· -janney/

If Google doesn't find a buyer for Motorola Mobility's Home unit before the end of this year, they may then consider breaking up the Home unit and selling it off in piece-part fashion:

Does Google Have a Plan B?
By Jeff Baumgartner, Light Reading Cable - December 7, 2012
»www.lightreading.com/blo ··· lr_cable

Could Cisco buy motorola? What would be the best buyer for the motorola cable business? I would like a service to compete with dish hopper and directv genie service.

Actually, given the title of this thread, I don't think Cisco would buy them. Pace seems to be one of the favorites (»www.lightreading.com/blo ··· lr_cable), but I'd rather see it sold off to another U.S. company like ARRIS.

See:
Could An Arris-Motorola Marriage Work?
By Jeff Baumgartner, Light Reading Cable - November 8, 2012
»www.lightreading.com/blo ··· lr_cable

Could one company buy both cisco and motorola's cable units?

Is there any chance of a service like genie or hopper coming to cable?

I don't think that would fly, that would effectively make the combined company a near cable equipment monopoly, so I highly doubt even if something like that were to come about, that it would be allowed.

A sale to ARRIS is now looking more likely:

Google Said to Get Best Bids for Unit from Pace, Arris
By Serena Saitto & Brian Womack, Bloomberg - December 10, 2012
»www.bloomberg.com/news/2 ··· ris.html

and given this reader comment to the LRC article (»www.lightreading.com/blo ··· 46&#msgs ):

Re: While we're speculating...
By sbiller1
Monday December 10, 2012 6:18:12 AM

Now that we've heard from Bloomberg that the two leading bids are from Pace and Arris, I think the answer to your question about Google indemnifying any potential acquirer to the litigation risk associated with the TiVo suit seems plausible. Pace has a market cap of close to $500 million making it a stretch for me to see how they can swallow the Moto business without significant financing from Google. Arris' 1.6 billion market cap seems more in-line with the numbers being reported. An interesting side-effect of the Pace rumor is they already have a deal with TiVo. Perhaps the deal already includes a baked-in settlement (credit?) with TiVo for past infringement, etc.

An article on the Light Reading Cable site this afternoon with more info on the bids:

Pace Bids For Motorola Home
By Jeff Baumgartner, Light Reading Cable - December 10, 2012
»www.lightreading.com/doc ··· lr_cable

Also on the Multichannel News site: »www.multichannel.com/tec ··· t/140651

Pace says it wants Motorola
Set-top box maker confirms it offered 'indicative, non-binding bid' to Google
By Jim Barthold, FierceIPTV - December 11, 2012
»www.fierceiptv.com/story ··· 12-12-11

Well, this could be a first step in Cisco selling off its set-top unit:

Cisco Said to Hire Barclays to Sell Linksys Division
By Serena Saitto & Jordan Robertson, Bloomberg - December 16, 2012
»www.bloomberg.com/news/2 ··· ion.html

From the article:

Cisco wants to sell Linksys as part of its strategy to exit consumer businesses while expanding in corporate software and technology services. Chief Executive Officer John Chambers eliminated 7,800 jobs over the past year and closed businesses such as the Flip video-camera unit amid a slowdown in sales growth after a foray into consumer technologies backfired.

In addition to Linksys, Cisco also operates in the home market with its Scientific Atlanta set-top-box unit and with NDS Group Ltd., a software maker for paid-television channels used by British Sky Broadcasting Group, Canal Plus and DirecTV. Cisco bought NDS in July for $5 billion.

why would they sell the highly successful cisco router business?

They are only looking to sell the consumer router part (i.e., Linksys), not their corporate/enterprise router one. As the article says: "Cisco wants to sell Linksys as part of its strategy to exit consumer businesses while expanding in corporate software and technology services."

Easy, to Cisco, Linksys is just a piddly little product line that is sold for cheap (since it's a home user product line that competes in the highly competitive, and discounted, SOHO market). Cisco has a highly successful AND profitable product line already, they did before they acquired Linksys... it's their enterprise class network equipment, it's a defacto standard for enterprise networks. Hell Cisco equipment pretty much runs the Internet as we know it....

Looks like Arris officially got Motorola's cable division. Surprised it's not on the front page...

»www.engadget.com/2012/12 ··· e-arris/

quote:

---

Ever since Google announced it would acquire Motorola Mobility last year there have been questions about what it would do with the company's large internet and TV set-top box business, and now that question has been answered: it's selling Motorola Home to Arris for $2.35 billion in cash and stock. Another maker of cable boxes and modems, Arris says the acquisition will both increase its product offering, and increase its patent portfolio thanks to a license to "a wide array" of Motorola Mobility patents. The transaction has been approved by the boards of both companies, and they expect the deal to close in Q2 2013.

---

Yeah, well, ARRIS was the one favored to get it.

Here's an article on the sale from the Multichannel News site:

Arris to Buy Motorola's Home Unit from Google for $2.35B
By Todd Spangler, Multichannel News - December 19, 2012
»www.multichannel.com/cab ··· b/140830

A mostly rhetorical thought: Since Comcast is a huge Motorola client, what are the chances that we'll get the 6-tuner Moxi Gateway now that Motorola is owned by Arris.
I realize the answer is slim to none, since the Moxi basically takes the X1 head on, and that's Comcast new preferred reference platform (even though currently it doesn't have all 6-tuners enabled, etc. etc.).

unfortunately probably not anytime soon. Motorola/google will still issue boxes until probably late 2013 when the transaction closes and everything is switched over. Hopefully by that time comcast will have delivered the new x1 box and programming guide to most of their footprint.

Some more articles on the sale on the FierceCable and Light Reading Cable sites last night and this morning:

Arris to buy Motorola Mobility home division for $2.35B from Google
Set-top vendor will challenge Cisco, Pace, Humax
By Steve Donohue, FierceCable - December 19, 2012
»www.fiercecable.com/stor ··· 12-12-19

Google Sells Moto Home to Arris for $2.35B
By Craig Matsumoto, Light Reading Cable - December 19, 2012
»www.lightreading.com/doc ··· lr_cable

Google Protects Arris From Big, Scary TiVo
By Jeff Baumgartner, Light Reading Cable - December 20, 2012
»www.lightreading.com/doc ··· lr_cable

EDIT: Also on the CED Magazine site: »www.cedmagazine.com/news ··· e-for-2b

EDIT2: And now this blog item by Jeff Baumgartner of Light Reading Cable:

Arris Swings for the Fences
By Jeff Baumgartner, Light Reading Cable - December 20, 2012
»www.lightreading.com/blo ··· lr_cable

EDIT3: An article on the Multichannel News site saying that ARRIS would be responsible for a maximum of $50 million in TiVo’s current patent lawsuit against Motorola:

Arris Would Pay Maximum of $50M in TiVo Patent Costs
By Todd Spangler, Multichannel News - December 21, 2012
»www.multichannel.com/vid ··· s/140884

Yeah, as you say, ARRIS has their re-designed Moxi Gateway system (»www.arrisi.com/products/ ··· ndex.asp) right now.
See the discussions about that in these previous threads:
»[STB] Moxi
»Re: Comcast AnyRoom DVR isn't Keeping Pace with its Competition
»Re: Comcast AnyRoom DVR isn't Keeping Pace with its Competition

An article on the Light Reading Cable site this morning:

Motorola & Arris: Product Gaps & Overlaps
By Jeff Baumgartner, Light Reading Cable - December 21, 2012
»www.lightreading.com/doc ··· lr_cable

An update on the LRC site today on all the companies that have now been licensed for Comcast's RDK:

Who's on Board With Comcast's Set-Top Kit?
By Jeff Baumgartner, Light Reading Cable - January 17, 2013
»www.lightreading.com/dvr ··· 40146217