CommScope has won the auction for bankrupt rival tech vendor Casa System's cable network assets with a surprisingly robust $45.1 million bid.
That winning number was more than twice the $20 million “stalking horse” bid rendered back in early April by Canadian software company Vecima Networks, which moved in shortly after Casa Systems filed bankruptcy.
Vecima, which had hoped Casa’s assets would accelerate its quest to run down Harmonic in the race for cable network virtualization, said it has assumed the role of backup bidder, with a bid of $44.95 million.
The sale of Casa’s cable tech business is part of a supervised, piece-by-piece bankruptcy court auction that has also seen Andover, Massachusetts-based Casa’s 5G mobile core and RAN assets sold to Lumine for $32.25 million, and Dallas-based DZS pay $7 million to buy NetComm, provider of fiber extension, fixed wireless access, home broadband and industrial Internet of Things products and patents.
As for Hickory, North Carolina-based CommScope, it has battled its own debt demons in the aftermath of its $7.4 billion purchase of cable tech vendor Arris.
However, extending itself further brings CommScope customer relationships with Casa client operators including Liberty Global, J:COM, Vodafone, and Canada's Rogers Communications and Vidéotron.
“As a leader in the cable industry, we are quite pleased by the opportunity to acquire Casa’s cloud-native network solutions,” CommScope CEO Chuck Treadway said in a statement. “Adding Casa’s technology to our portfolio will allow us to provide a seamless transition for our combined customer base that utilizes both integrated and virtual CMTS products. This transaction provides stability to Casa’s customers while allowing CommScope to further grow our customer base as we enable customers to migrate to Distributed Access Architecture solutions on their own timeline.”
For its part, Vecima said: “the auction was a competitive daylong process that consisted of multiple rounds of bidding by Vecima and several other interested parties. Vecima conducted extensive due diligence prior to the auction and, based on those insights, made the decision at the end of the auction not to increase its bid any further when the proposed price was no longer reasonably supported by Vecima’s valuation of the assets.”
