HFC technology pioneer C-COR Australia bought by management

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 26 October 2006 12:19

IT Industry - Deals

C-COR Broadband Australia, the current incarnation of the company that supplied Telstra's first broadband network, has been bought from its US parent by its managing director, John Goddard, and CFO, Keith Siu.
C-COR Broadband was established in 1993 as a division of Philips Electronics under the name Philips Public Telecommunications Systems. It provided the end-to-end broadband hybrid fibre coax cable TV (HFC CATV) equipment for the Telstra/Foxtel network, as well as infrastructure for other, emerging, industry players.

Goddard was part of the original management team, originally as account manager of the Telstra account. Siu joined in 2001 when he was seconded from Philips in Singapore as the financial controller of Philips Broadband Networks division in Australia.

When C-COR - a NASDAQ listed company with FY2006 revenues of $US262m - purchased the worldwide Philips Broadband Networks division in 2002, Goddard was made managing director of the Australian business. The Australian company says it has now evolved to become a leader in HFC CATV products, including connections products, with 90 percent of the market. Products are delivered direct business to business or via the wholesale electrical and data distribution channels in Australia and New Zealand.

"We are now moving into Asia, exporting our services to this region," said Goddard. "We have already created a support base in India for new customers with other countries to be added in 2007. All our export activities will be supported by our Australian resources.

"In three years we expect to have increased our revenue fivefold and made a mark in emerging technologies such as WiMAX and FTTx. While we will continue to distribute the excellent C-COR equipment, we have the flexibility to introduce other complementary products and represent more suppliers such as ARRIS for cable modems and transmission equipment; CommScope for cables; PPC for connectors; and Power & Telephone for CATV connections products. In terms of WiMAX, we are currently investigating a partnership with a leading player in this field."

He added: "To manage this growth we will continue to increase our staff numbers, particularly in the area of systems engineers, sales engineers, project management and support staff."