After six years, Cisco is looking to switch off its Scientific-Atlanta cable set-top box business, The Post has learned.
The Internet equipment maker, which in 2006 paid close to $7 billion for the tech firm, has put the company on the block as margins in that business have come under pressure, according to a source following the situation.
“I know Cisco is out looking to sell Scientific-Atlanta,” the source said.
A Cisco spokeswoman declined to comment.
Much has changed in the set-top box business since Cisco acquired S-A, most of all the streaming of Internet content and the race to introduce video on multiple platforms.
Arguably, the set-top box is becoming outdated.
The most likely buyers are private equity firms, who often look to pay reasonably-low purchase multiples for mature businesses which they can use as cash cows, another source said.
Microsoft had an interest in 2006, a source said, but much has changed in five years.
Cisco has said it’s moving from set-top boxes to Videoscape, a product built on technology gained from Scientific-Atlanta that allows media companies to deliver content through the cloud to smart phones and tablets.
In a public filing, Cisco said its key manufacturing facilities for Scientific-Atlanta’s products are located in Juarez, Mexico, and in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011, it entered into an agreement to sell them to one of its contract manufacturers.
Cisco closed trading Friday at $20.29 a share, up more than 12 percent this year after a rough 2011 that saw its shares lose roughly 8 percent of their value.