Comcast agreed to take an equity stake in Arris because...
Comcast agreed to take an equity stake in Arris because the cable operator was interested in making sure Motorola’s set-top box and network equipment business lands “in a good place,” Arris CEO Bob Stanzione told analysts Thursday during the company’s…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
earnings call. Arris agreed to buy the Motorola Mobility business from Google late last year (CD Dec 20 p4). “You can think of it not only as an endorsement, but they were interested in the Motorola Home business winding up in a good place,” Stanzione said. “Their investment was aligned with that motive.” When the deal closes both Google and Comcast will own a little less than 8 percent of Arris’s shares. Comcast’s investment in Arris probably won’t mean the cable operator will buy more Arris or Motorola equipment than it already does, Stanzione said. “I don’t think this is going to sway their purchasing decisions,” he said. Both Arris and Motorola are suppliers to Comcast but the cable operator has a multi-supplier policy it’s expected to uphold, Stanzione said. The transaction is proceeding, Stanzione said. “We've received the debt ratings we anticipated and the financing commitments are nearly finalized,” he said. “We are now in that awkward period of awaiting DOJ approval,” he said. The company said it still expects the deal to close before July. Q4 sales increased 22 percent from a year earlier to $344 million, Arris said. The company recorded a net income of $14.8 million, up from a $59.6 million loss a year earlier that followed a one-time write-down and amortization charge.