In its first acquisition since wrapping up its purchase of Motorola Home last April, Arris has nabbed SeaWell Networks, a company that specializes in adaptive bit rate streaming technologies.
Arris did not name a purchase price, but said Toronto-based SeaWell and its employee base of less than 50 is being folded into its Network & Cloud business. Brian Collie, SeaWell’s founder and CEO will also join Arris and report to Peter Burke, Arris’s SVP and GM, video systems.
Burke said SeaWell will give Arris important stream packaging capabilities, including just-in-time packaging systems that allow service providers to save on storage space by rapidly packaging adaptive bit rates streams into their appropriate platform, device format and right resolution as the end user requests them.
SeaWell also makes a manifest manipulation technology that enables next-gen targeted advertising and personalized video services, Burke said, noting that Arris will be integrating SeaWell’s expertise and products into its product roadmap in the coming months.
"This acquisition will create new opportunities for our employees, customers and the industry. This combination will provide the next-gen TV solutions our customers need to more quickly and cost-effectively transition to IP and multiscreen video,” Collie said in a statement.
Arris and SeaWell were tech pals before the deal. Last year, they announced an integrated targeted ad platform for multiscreen video covering all “major” adaptive bit rate protocols.
SeaWell’s known customers include Nemont Telephone Cooperative, Columbus International of the Caribbean, and, according to ScreenPlays Magazine, Time Warner Cable. Toronto-based SeaWell named Joan Gillman, executive vice president of TWC and president of TWC Media, as an independent board member in July 2012.
SeaWell, founded in 2008, has raised $15 million, according to TechCrunch data. Its investors include BDC Venture Capital, Northwater Capital, and the MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund.
