Arris International reported a 60% spike in GAAP revenue to $1.759 billion for the fourth quarter, driven by hot sales of customer service equipment.
Overall, the vendor’s CPE revenue was up 89% in the quarter, with sales of DOCSIS 3.1-capable modems and gateways driving a 37% uptick in broadband device sales. Consequently, sales of Comcast X1 and Charter Worldbox equipment helped to drive a 129% increase on the video CPE side
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“What you saw obviously in our results in Q4 was the video set-top portion of our business increasing again over the third quarter ... We see pretty solid demand in that business,” said Arris CEO Bruce McClelland, speaking to investment analysts during a Thursday-afternoon conference call. During the call the company also discussed its just-made $800 million purchase of Ruckus’ wireless networking business.
Arris said sales of streamlined IP- and 4K-capable video devices are robust in markets like Europe. McClelland discounted the impact of an announcement made earlier this month by Comcast to integrate core pay-TV functions into Roku devices.
“The announcement on Comcast streaming to Roku platforms wasn't new news,” he said. “It’s something that they talked about last year. It’s an extension—an augmentation—of their complete package. It their complete bundle on to a whole variety of different devices, but not to replace their core strategy.”
Arris, meanwhile, also reported a 19% year-over-year increase for the other half of its business, cloud and networking, driven partly by solid E6000 CMTS sales.
It wasn’t all just good news for Arris.
McClelland warned investors of what he expects to be a rocky first-quarter earnings report. The big fourth-quarter sales filled customer inventory, he said.
“In addition, there are several other factors affecting our first quarter business, including the transition of the CCAP business to our gen 2 technology, the closure of our AT&T call center business in the fourth quarter and sale of the Moxi business, continued softness in Central and Latin America due to currency weakness, and political and economic uncertainty, and the normal seasonal softness from slower construction,” McClelland added.