Arris Preps New CPE Products

Now that its acquisition of Motorola Home is complete, Arris Group Inc. is working through the challenges of integration and plotting new devices to revive its sagging set-top business. (See Arris Shows Off New Mojo.)

The cable vendor reported revenues of US$1 billion, up dramatically from $394.3 million a year ago due to the acquisition of Motorola Home. That takeover deal was completed on April 17, making it the largest set-top supplier in the U.S. (See Arris Secures Motorola Home.)

Arris Chairman and CEO Bob Stanzione noted that the integration of the company is going well and delivered better-than-expected financial results.

At the same time, its traditional set-top business continued to slow, down 8 to 12 percent during the first half of 2013 compared with the same period a year ago.

But Stanzione is bullish about the growth potential of the vendor's recently formed customer premises equipment (CPE) business unit, which accounted for $660 million of second-quarter revenues.

Arris recently announced a program to launch its XG1 video gateway with Comcast Corp. and introduced new set-top platforms with Bell Canada. In addition, the CEO noted during the company's earnings conference call that there are three to four more significant customer engagements in the CPE unit that he's counting on to gain traction towards the end of this year and into the next. (See Arris Caps Off CCAP Trials.)

That CPE unit, headed up by Larry Robinson, consists of the vendor's digital video products, DOCSIS devices and telco CPE products. Robinson noted that there are about half a dozen new products under development across the portfolio, including video gateway platforms. He expects business to ramp up as the pay-TV providers transition to IP.

"Many are in trials … many are progressing well, but we expect it will still take some time to still get through service provider gates to get products into markets," he said. "It's more a matter of timing as we begin to realize the benefits of the products we have in the pipeline."

— Sarah Reedy, Senior Editor, Light Reading