Suwanee, Ga.-based Arris announced that attorney Patrick Macken, who has been providing Arris legal services for 10 years from a large leather chair at Troutman Sanders LLP, will be brought in-house as senior VP and general counsel.
With Arris expecting its financials to endure a roller-coaster 2015 thanks to big ongoing mergers among its top clients, U.S. pay-TV operators, the technology company is thinking about a big deal of its own.
Macken led the corporate law team at his last firm, specializing in securities laws, mergers and acquisitions, capital markets and corporate governance.
FierceCable asked an Arris press rep if Macken's hiring portends anything major on the deal front, and we received the following statement: "As with any company, Arris is always evaluating opportunities to grow our business. We cannot comment on future plans."
Macken joins Arris during a slow period for the access equipment maker. Infonetics Research predicts shipments of access equipment have fallen about 7 percent in the nearly completed first quarter, with Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) and Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) slowing up on their spending as they close in on their proposed merger.
"Patrick is a strategic addition to our legal team, bringing a wealth of experience and expertise specific to Arris," said Bob Stanzione, to whom Macken will report directly, in a statement announcing the hire. "I'm confident that his continued accomplishments will facilitate our growth in new and existing markets, as we collaborate with our customers to invent the future of entertainment and communications for millions of people around the world."
Stanzione told investors in February at the company's fourth-quarter earnings call, "We have short-term headwinds... Based on conversations that we are having with our customers, we believe that there will be an increase in spending later on in the year, particularly on the cable side of the business where these three companies that are involved in this transaction, Time Warner, Comcast and Charter (NASDAQ: CHTR) are going to kind of shuffle things around and we'll soon have three companies."
For more:
- read this Arris press release
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