- Harmonic agreed to sell its video biz to MediaKind for $145M
- It plans to ramp its broadband focus as BEAD and DOCSIS 4.0 rollouts pick up, said Dell’Oro’s Jeff Heynen
- Harmonic could use the extra cash for potential M&A, he added
Harmonic is going all-in on broadband, having decided to part ways with its video business. The vendor agreed to sell the unit for $145 million to streaming technology company MediaKind.
The reason why comes down to focus. The deal, expected to close in the first half of 2026, will “allow Harmonic to zero in on its core Broadband segment, while ensuring the Video Business, its customers and dedicated employees become part of an organization committed to the future of video delivery,” said Harmonic President and CEO Nimrod Ben-Natan in today’s announcement.
The divestiture isn’t too surprising given Harmonic previously contemplated offloading its video unit. The company in October 2023 kicked off a formal strategic review of the business, noting at the time it had interest from a number of parties.
However, Harmonic in April 2024 opted to keep the video business and said it would focus on "driving profitable growth by focusing on scalable market opportunities, streamlining operations and optimizing its cost structure." At the time, though, it left the door open to "further opportunities and alternatives" should they arise.
Harmonic anticipates boom in BEAD and DOCSIS 4.0
The challenge Harmonic faced, according to Dell’Oro Group VP Jeff Heynen, was that its video processing business had both hardware and software-as-a-service components. The hardware business wasn’t growing like the SaaS side of the house because it is tied to legacy broadcast video processing, which made the overall video business a less compelling purchase.
Yet, MediaKind is now buying both parts of that business, allowing Harmonic to capitalize on both DOCSIS 4.0 and Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) activity in 2026, Heynen told Fierce.
As Charter and Cox, Comcast, Mediacom and others move forward with their network upgrades, Harmonic is poised to benefit since these operators will need virtual cable modem termination service (vCMTS) servers and licenses, remote-PHY devices as well as remote optical line terminals (OLTs) for both HFC and fiber deployments, he said.
Commercial DOCSIS 4.0 deployments are still in their early days, but Harmonic feels bullish that activity will pick up, Harmonic SVP of Broadband Products Asaf Matatyaou told us in September. He said the tech is ready to go, but operators still have work to do in upgrading their plants and customer equipment.
As for BEAD, uncertainty earlier in the year prompted some vendors to consider other revenue opportunities. But now that NTIA is approving state plans, the industry is optimistic deployments will start in 2026.
“Keep in mind that Comcast and Charter did win quite a bit of BEAD bids for 100k+ locations, a large percentage of which will be fiber-based,” Heynen said. “So, the additional capital will help Harmonic address those locations with remote OLTs.”
Flexibility for future M&A
The cash from the sale could also give Harmonic “flexibility” to potentially make some component acquisitions, he added.
Specifically, Heynen’s thinking about Ciena’s Tibit OLT MicroPlug. Ciena acquired Tibit Communications in 2022 as part of its broadband push, but it is now stepping back from that business to invest more in optical and data center networking.
For Harmonic, Tibit components “would definitely improve gross margins and could likely be purchased at a relatively low cost,” Heynen said.