Broadcast video technology drives BigBand to IPO

A recent Emmy award nominee for its switched broadcast technology, BigBand Networks filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on December 22 for an initial public offering.

The shares of common stock to be sold in the offering are expected to be offered by BigBand Networks and certain of its stockholders.

Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch will act as joint book-running managers for the offering. Jefferies & Company, Cowen and Company and ThinkEquity Partners will act as co-managers. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have not yet been determined.

BigBand counts nine of the top 10 cable operators as customers and also sells to the large telecom operators. It has a suite of platforms for operators deploying video, voice and data services. The Broadband Multimedia-Service Router is the foundation of BigBand’s digital video broadcast and transport services. The company also has the Cuda cable modem termination system for the deliver of IP-based video, voice and data services. It holds up to 12 DOCSIS application modules. The Broadband Multimedia-Service Edge is a modular platform for the edge processing and modulation of switched video services such as video on demand.

BigBand will find out on January 8^th at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas if its technology wins the National Television Academy’s Technology and Engineering Award. Its switched broadcast technology was nominated for “Outstanding Achievement in Advanced Media Technology for the Creation of Non-Traditional Programs or Platforms.” The company developed the technology to help cable operators expand the amount of programming they could offer by freeing up additional spectrum.

BigBand also was nominated along with Time Warner Cable and other companies for contribution to TMC’s start-over feature, which allows users to jump to the beginning of a program without prior planning.