With most of the quarter in the books, it’s clear that cable tech suppliers are seeing some sizable momentum as operators push ahead with upgrades of their hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) networks to support DOCSIS 3.1+ and DOCSIS 4.0 alongside fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) buildouts in adjacent and completely new areas.
It’s also clear that there’s some M&A on the horizon, with both Harmonic and Vistance/Aurora Networks (formerly CommScope; Amphenol now owns the CommScope brand) reiterating they intend to explore potential acquisitions that can help them grow their existing broadband businesses or enable them to expand into new areas.
Most of the companies in this grouping have recently sold off assets so they can prioritize their core broadband businesses. Among those moves, Harmonic recently closed the sale of its video business to MediaKind; Vistance sold its Ruckus unit to Belden; and Vecima Networks has divested its Telematics business via a deal with Lantronix.
By company, here’s a recap (so far) of the quarter:
Harmonic’s big quarter
Harmonic shares were up more than 12% Thursday morning after the company beat Q2 numbers, raised guidance for the rest of 2026, and saw increased diversification of its business amid sales momentum in a “rest-of-market” segment that does not include Harmonic’s two top customers (Comcast and Charter Communications).
Harmonic’s Q2 sales of $133.5 million handily beat the $120.9 million expected by analysts, and was ahead of guidance in the range of $115 million to $125 million. Harmonic expects Q3 sales in the range of $125 million to $135 million. It also expects full-year 2026 sales of $505 million to $525 million, up from prior guidance of $475 million to $495 million.
Charter and Comcast remain marquee customers for Harmonic, but customers in the ROM segment jumped 44% and comprised 37% of total revenues in Q2. Speaking on Wednesday’s earnings call, Harmonic CEO Nimrod Ben-Natan said ROM momentum is coming from a mix of DOCSIS 3.1+, DOCSIS 4.0 and PON deployments. The latter includes a growing mix of fiber deployments with telcos that fall outside of the traditional cable industry.
Strength in the ROM segment will contribute to Harmonic’s long-term customer diversification and signals that operators “have begun to follow Charter and Comcast’s lead with more conviction,” Raymond James analyst Simon Leopold explained in a research note.
Harmonic ended the quarter with $232 million in cash and $85 million available from an undrawn credit facility. That gives Harmonic ample financial flexibility to invest in organic growth, return capital to shareholders and pursue “strategic” M&A that can further grow and diversify the business, CFO Walter Jankovic said Wednesday on Harmonic’s earnings call.
He didn’t specify where Harmonic will look for M&A opportunities. However, expect any transactions to fit Harmonic’s stance as a “pure-play” broadband company following the sale of its video business.
Harmonic said its footprint of cOS – its virtualized platform for HFC and PON access networks – now comprises 161 customers and serves 48.2 million customer premises equipment (CPE) devices. That means Harmonic added 11 cOS customers during Q2 along with support for an additional 2.5 million CPE devices.
Harmonic will shed more light on its strategies when it hosts an investor day in mid-September.
Vistance/Aurora also on the hunt for M&A
With its $1.85 billion sale of Ruckus to Belden now in the books, Vistance Networks/Aurora Networks is flush with cash and will use some of it to pursue growth opportunities, including potential M&A and possible stock buybacks.
Speaking on a Q2 earnings call earlier this month, CEO Chuck Treadway said Vistance/Aurora will explore opportunities inside and outside of cable network tech, including possible M&A focused on adjacent markets. He didn’t point to anything specific. The company ended Q2 with $152 million of cash on hand.
The company’s current core business is in cable network tech, including DOCSIS cable modem termination systems (CMTSs), virtual CMTSs, nodes, amplifiers and remote PHY and remote MACPHY devices for distributed access architecture (DAA) upgrades.
Outside of the DOCSIS world, Vistance offers PON products and a virtual broadband network gateway acquired from the auction of Casa Systems’ cable assets in 2024. Vistance also has a security business line that includes public key infrastructure (PKI) products for digital video systems and IoT devices. With the Ruckus deal done, Treadway said Vistance will put more focus on the security business, which has “significant potential for investment and growth.”
Q2 net sales (including Ruckus) dropped 3% to $513 million. The financial impact from rising memory chip pricing and “stranded costs” were about $15 million in the quarter. Kyle Lorentzen, Vistance’s EVP and CFO, said three customers represented about 70% of Q2 revenues. He didn’t name them, but Vistance’s 2025 annual report showed that Comcast made up about 35% of net sales for that year.
The DOCSIS-focused Aurora segment pulled in Q2 net sales of $319 million, down 1% year-over-year, due to strong sales of legacy tech that was partially offset by higher amplifier sales.
Treadway said market for DOCSIS 4.0 products is on the upswing, including ongoing deployments of Full Duplex (FDX) products to Comcast and Extended Spectrum DOCSIS (ESD) amps heading to “multiple large” North American cable operators. The company started to ship and deploy “unified” nodes that support both FDX and ESD in Q2. Unified D4.0-capable amps are in lab testing now, and will start shipping in early 2027.
“We expect shipments [of next-gen DOCSIS products] to ramp up over the next couple of quarters, and these products will continue to ship over multiple years,” he said.
AOI posts a fresh cable revenue record
Like Vistance/Aurora, Applied Optoelectronics (AOI) also saw a surge in amplifier sales in Q2. AOI, which now also in the fiber node business, posted record cable tech sales of $80.6 billion, ahead of the $78.5 billion expected by Raymond James, and up 43.8% from the year-ago period.
The bulk of AOI’s cable sales activity is for 1.8GHz amps, with most of it going to the supplier’s largest cable operator customer, Charter Communications. Mediacom Communications recently tapped AOI to support its D4.0 upgrades.
Cable represented 42% of total AOI revenues in the period, versus 56% from data center products and 2% from fiber-to-the-premises/telecom.
The current quarter should be even better. Stefan Murry, AOI’s CFO and chief strategy officer, said the company anticipates Q3 cable revenues in the range of $100 million to $110 million, with an expectation that the cable segment will deliver more than $325 million annually.
Those numbers are taking shape more than three years after AOI started to develop and sell cable products directly to cable operators under a team led by former Cisco and Scientific-Atlanta exec Todd McCrum.
And it looks like McCrum will be going out on top. Murry announced on August 7 that McCrum, the company’s SVP and GM of broadband access, is leaving AOI to spend more time with his family. Steve Pederson, who joined AOI in 2023 to lead product strategy, has been tapped to take on McCrum’s role. Pederson is also late of S-A and Cisco.
Vecima Networks: Stay tuned
Vecima Networks has yet to post fiscal Q4 results. It recently announced an exclusive vCMTS deal with Canada’s Videotron that followed Vecima’s first-ever vCMTS agreement, with Cox Communications, which is in the process of merging with Charter Communications.
Like some of its cable tech peers, Vecima has also shed some assets of late, including the sale of its Telematics unit.
Vecima also made some changes up top, upping Clay McCreery to president and COO. He’s been COO since 2020. Sumit Kumar remains CEO.
Vecima also named Ryan Nicomento to chief product officer, up from SVP and GM of video and broadband solutions.
