Eagle Broadband sheds IPTV STB business

Nighthawk Systems today announced that it has purchased the IPTV set-top box business assets of Eagle Broadband for $4.75 million. Nighthawk will assume responsibility for production on a contract with forecasted purchases that could generate in excess of $6 million in revenues to Nighthawk over a one-year period.

Exiting from the STB business is only the latest in a long list of strategy changes for the financially troubled Eagle. The company began by selling paging and other wireless gear in 1996. In 2001, it acquired Clearworks.net and started offering broadband products and services. In the following years, it entered the security monitoring business, left the paging business to focus instead on bundled digital telecom services, satellite products and IT services. Finally, last year, Eagle exited the security monitoring business and switched focus to three primary areas, indoor satellite telephony products, IT services and IPTV over fiber-to-the-home.

According to an Eagle spokesperson, the Nighthawk purchase was worth $5.1 million to Eagle, which immediately transferred four employees to Nighthawk’s payroll. Eagle CEO Brian Morrow said the sale will allow the company to focus its attention on the service areas of its business and reduce Eagle’s financial pressures by paying off a large portion of its debt, while also giving it the opportunity to reorganize its staff and capabilities.

“Eagle’s primary objective is to move to a profitable business model as quickly as possible,” Morrow said in a prepared statement. “The burden of continuing interest costs on our formerly secured debt and the escalating product development costs in our set-top box business were both major financial impediments to achieving that objective.”

Taking the opposite approach, Nighthawk said the purchase will allow it to expand its business, significantly bolstering revenues and cash flows based on existing purchase orders for high-definition MediaPro IP3000HD set-top boxes with an undisclosed hospitality solutions provider.

“This is a huge event for Nighthawk Systems,” H. Douglas Saathoff, Nighthawk’s COO, said in a prepared statement. “This funding and subsequent acquisition of the set-top box business present Nighthawk with an incredible opportunity to take a quick and large step forward in creating additional value in the company.”

In the near term, Saathoff expects Nighthawk to be able to return to a positive net equity position, allowing the company to attract larger customers and contracts. He also said the purchase will allow it to enhance revenues and cash flows from existing orders for the set-top box products, lower costs due to higher production volumes and increase opportunities to sell traditional Nighthawk products into set-top box markets.

“I believe this acquisition will provide operational and financial synergies for a long time to come,” Saathoff said.