Scientific Atlanta
 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification.(January 2010) |
 | |
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Broadband |
| Founded | 1951 |
| Founders | James E. Boyd Charles Griffin Robert E. Honer Gerald Rosselot Lamar Whittle Vernon Widerquist Glen P. Robinson |
| Defunct | November 25, 2015 |
| Fate | Acquired byCisco Systems |
| Headquarters | , United States |
Key people | Tony Bates, Cisco James F. McDonald, CEO |
| Products | Set-top boxes Cable distribution Cable Modems IPTVhardware |
| Revenue | $1.9 billion (fiscal year 2005) |
Number of employees | 9,784 (as of June 5, 2007) |
| Parent | Cisco Systems(2006–2015) |
Scientific Atlanta, Inc.was aGeorgia,United States–based manufacturer of cable television, telecommunications, and broadband equipment. Scientific Atlanta was founded in 1951 by a group of engineers from theGeorgia Institute of Technology,and was purchased byCisco Systemsin 2005 for $6.9 billion after Cisco received antitrust clearance for the purchase.[1][2]The Cisco acquisition of Scientific Atlanta was ranked in the top 10 of largest technology acquisitions in history and was Cisco's largest acquisition to date.[3][4]Prior to the purchase, Scientific Atlanta had been a Fortune 500 company and was one of the top 25 largest corporations in Georgia.[5][6][7]
Scientific Atlanta was considered by many to be "the patriarch of Atlanta's technology industry for nearly six decades" and is sometimes referred to as "Atlanta'sMicrosoftorHewlett Packard".[8]
Products
[edit]Scientific Atlanta was a supplier of transmission networks for broadband access to the home, set-top cable boxes, cable modems and digital interactive subscriber systems for video, high-speed Internet, voice over IP (VoIP) networks, and worldwide customer service and support.
Products for the cable TV industry, fromfiber opticnetwork equipment for head-end media acquisition, toExplorerdigitalcable boxes(as well asuniversal remotesto go with them), andcable modems(formerly branded asWebSTARuntil the Cisco acquisition in 2006), dominate Scientific Atlanta's sales. Scientific Atlanta's most popular modem is the Scientific Atlanta 2100, because it is often supplied by cable providers likeSpectrum,Comcast,Time Warner CableandCox Communications.Scientific Atlanta also supplies distribution technology to networks such asBloomberg Television,CNN,ESPNand many others.
In addition to providing products for traditional coaxial and fiber service operators, Scientific Atlanta also expanded itsIPTVsolutions offerings after the merger with Cisco.[9]Before this, on August 18, 2005, Scientific-Atlanta andSBC(now AT&T) signed a deal for Scientific-Atlanta to be the exclusive set-top provider forSBC U-verseTV.
History
[edit]
Founded in October 1951 by sixGeorgia Tech Research Instituteresearchers:James E. Boyd(future station director), Charles Griffin, Robert E. Honer (MSEE),Gerald Rosselot(station director), Lamar Whittle, and Vernon Widerquist, who each invested $100.[10]In late 1952Glen P. Robinsonbecame the seventh member.[11]Scientific Atlanta was started to produce technology developed at the research station.[12][13][14]After the fledgling company's first contract resulted in a $4,000 loss, Robinson bought out all but one of the original investors, and paid them each back their original $100.[14]
Glen P. Robinsonwas the CEO of Scientific Atlanta for 20 years, and chairman of the board for an additional eight years, until he retired from the company in 1979. Scientific Atlanta grew dramatically; it earned $3.1 million in revenue in 1962 and approximately $200 million when Robinson left.Sidney Topolserved as its president from 1971 to 1983, CEO from 1975 to 1987, and chairman of the board from 1978 to 1990. During his tenure, the company grew in sales to more than $600 million. During the 1970s the company developed the concept of cable/satellite connection, which, in working withHBOand transportable earth stations developed byTelePrompTer Corporationand manufactured by Scientific Atlanta, established satellite-delivered television for the cable industry.[15]
In 2000, the company sold its satellite ground station and satellite networking businesses toViasat.[16]
In August 2002, the company laid off 6 percent of the company's total.[17]
In February 2003, Scientific-Atlanta introduced their first Explorer HD set-top box, which is capable of displayingHDTVprogramming, atBest Buystores in thePhoenix metropolitan area.It was later rolled out nationwide. In March 2004, Scientific-Atlanta launched the Explorer 8000HD, their first set-top box with both DVR and HD.
In the set-top arena, Scientific-Atlanta once enjoyed 100% market share withTime Warner Cable,CablevisionandAT&T U-verse;all three companies have since started to transition to other boxes, Cablevision usingSamsung,while TWC and U-verse are split between SA/Cisco and competitorArris(formerlyMotorola).Comcastalso has a split account with the two companies. Other companies that have split accounts with SA and Arris areSuddenlink Communications,Charter CommunicationsandCox;the two vendors also had split accounts forAdelphiabefore that company went under in 2006.Pace plc,which mainly competes in foreign markets, serves as a domestic rival, but on a limited scale.
On November 18, 2005, Scientific Atlanta announced that it would be purchased byCisco Systemsin a US$6.9 billion cash deal. On February 25, 2006, Cisco Systems announced that it had completed acquisition of Scientific Atlanta in a cash deal that paid $43 per share. The total cash value of the deal was roughly US$7 billion, or US$5.1 billion net of Scientific Atlanta's cash balance, and also about US$5.1 billion over their 2005shareholders' equity.In its fiscal year 2005, Scientific Atlanta earned $1.36 per common share (diluted).
On November 21, 2015, Cisco completed sale of its Connected Devices Business Unit (CDBU) toTechnicolor SA.[18]This business was comprised primarily by customer premises equipment (CPE) related hardware and software that had originated at Scientific Atlanta, including set top boxes, cable gateways / modems, CableCard devices, digital transport adapters, wireless video access points, network extenders, accessories and eleven software products related to these offerings.[19]
The company was honored at the 2008Technology & Engineering Emmy Awardsfor development of interactive video on demand infrastructure and signaling, leading to large scaleVODimplementations.
References
[edit]- ^Richtel, Matt; Belson, Ken (19 November 2005)."Acquisition Offers Hint of Cisco's Strategy".The New York Times.Retrieved2015-05-17.
- ^"Cisco gets antitrust OK to buy Scientific-Atlanta".Retrieved2015-05-17.
- ^"#1: Scientific Atlanta, digital cable TV boxes, $6.9 billion".Business Insider.Retrieved2015-05-17.
- ^"Scientific-Atlanta purchase changes Cisco's acquisitions rules".18 November 2005.Retrieved2015-05-17.
- ^"Fortune 500 Companies".Retrieved2015-05-17.
- ^"Largest Companies in Georgia".Retrieved2015-05-17.
- ^"25 Largest Georgia-Based Company-Sponsored Foundations".Retrieved2015-05-17.
- ^"Why Cisco may sell Scientific Atlanta".Retrieved2015-05-17.
- ^"Cisco IPTV Solutions".Retrieved2011-05-11.
- ^"It all began with six engineers in a warehouse".www.bizjournals.com.1996.
- ^"Roots sprouted at Tech in 1950s".Atlanta Journal-Constitution,Nov. 19, 2005, Matt Kempner
- ^"Glen P. Robinson Jr".Georgia Tech Research Institute.Retrieved2010-01-19.
- ^"Researchers form Scientific-Atlanta".Georgia Tech Research Institute.Retrieved2010-01-26.
- ^ab"U.S. Business: One Way to Do It".Time.1963-04-26. Archived fromthe originalon 2011-02-18.Retrieved2010-01-20.
- ^"Cable Hall of Fame 1998 - 2010 Honorees Sid Topol".The Cable Center.Retrieved2011-05-14.
- ^"Company News; Viasat to Acquire Scientific-Atlanta Satellite Business".The New York Times.January 20, 2000.RetrievedMarch 3,2015.
- ^"Scientific-Atlanta Cuts 400 Jobs".hive4media.com.August 16, 2002.Archivedfrom the original on September 8, 2002.RetrievedSeptember 22,2019.
- ^"Technicolor has closed the acquisition of Cisco's Connected Devices business".
- ^http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac49/ac0/ac1/ac259/docs/connected-devices.pdf[bare URL PDF]
External links
[edit]- Scientific Atlanta
- Companies based in Gwinnett County, Georgia
- Computer companies established in 1951
- Computer companies disestablished in 2015
- Cisco Systems acquisitions
- Defunct computer companies of the United States
- Defunct computer hardware companies
- 1951 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)
- 2015 disestablishments in Georgia (U.S. state)
- American companies established in 1951
- 2006 mergers and acquisitions
- Telecommunications equipment vendors