Harmonic-Scopus $50 Million Deal Completed

SUNNYVALE: Harmonic’s acquisition of Scopus is completed, the buyer said today. Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT), which makes technology for video-on-demand and digital video recording, closed the deal at $5.62 a share in cash--roughly $50 million net of Scopus’ cash and short-term investments.

The deal was first proffered in late December, and after some shareholder resistance, went through at the original per-share price.

Harmonic said it expected to save $8 million to $10 million annually on operations once the Scopus is fully integrating.

Scopus, a video-processing specialist based in Tel Aviv, Israel, posted a profit of $346,000 on revenues of nearly $75.7 million for 2008, compared to a net loss of nearly $2.8 million on revenues of nearly $57.5 million for the previous year.

Harmonic ended 2008 with net income of $64 million on revenues of nearly $365 million; compared to income of $23 million on revenues of $311 million for 2007. Shares of Harmonic have climbed steadily throughout the week from an open of around $4.60 Monday morning to nearly $5.50 by mid-day today, reflecting an overall rebound in the wider market.