Type Private Operating income Total assets US$181M (FY 2010) Number of employees 620 | Industry Digital Video
CMTS Net income US$-31.6M (FY 2010) Revenue 112 million USD (2010) Parent organization ARRIS Group Inc. | |
Key people Amir Bassan-Eskenazi, CEO, President & Co-Founder
Ran Oz, Former CTO & Co-Founder Founded December 1998, Redwood City, California, United States Headquarters Redwood City, California, United States Founders Ran Oz, Amir Bassan-Eskenazi Subsidiaries BigBand Networks Ltd | ||
BigBand Networks, or BigBand, was a multinational corporation headquartered in Redwood City, California, United States, and is currently a division within ARRIS Group. BigBand manufactured and sold digital video and data processing platforms and solutions in areas ranging from digital video to CMTS.
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Locations
BigBand's 3 major development centers have been assimilated by ARRIS Group. The main video products are developed at the development center in Tel Aviv, Israel employing roughly 200 people. The main data and voice products development center is located in Westborough, Massachusetts with roughly 175 people. A third research and development office is located in Shenzhen, China.
Products and technologies
The company formerly sold video, voice and data solutions directly to major cable Multi-System Operators MSOs. Amongst the company's biggest MSO clients were Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cablevision, Cox, and Telcos with Verizon becoming their biggest customer in 2006.
BigBand's main products include a digital video processing platform called BMR and a Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS) called Cuda. The video platform enables services such as Switched Video, Digital Cable, Video on demand and IPTV offered on a variety of transport networks such as QAM cable, DSL and Verizon FiOS.
In 2008, BigBand received the Technology & Engineering Emmy Award for its innovative switched video technology.
Recent affairs
In 2011 the acquisition of BigBand by ARRIS was completed for $172 million, with ARRIS paying $53 million for the acquisition of BigBand's outstanding shares.
BigBand is currently suing a firm started by ex-employees. The firm, called Imagine Communications, is allegedly infringing on 3 of BigBand's patents covering video processing and bandwidth management techniques.
IPO and Class Action Lawsuit
BigBand went public in March 2007. The offering was underwritten by Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Jeffries & Company, Cowen & Company and ThinkEquity.
In October 2007, a class-action shareholder lawsuit was filed on behalf of shareholders who purchased BigBand Networks Inc. securities in the company’s IPO on March 15, 2007. The lawsuit sought to pursue remedies under the Securities Act of 1933. The complaint alleged BigBand violated the Securities Act, and that company insiders including the CEO, CFO and CTO knowingly published misleading and false statements about the company’s financial health and product offerings. In particular, the complaint alleged that BigBand materially misstated their revenues, and engaged, among other allegations, in the practice informally known as channel stuffing to artificially inflate their financials prior to IPO. The suit was settled in 2009, with BigBand agreeing to pay US$1.5 million.