Pace has further cemented its position on the digital TV technologies market in 2009 with profits of £69.9 million, a 405% increase on the £13.8 million of 2008.
Revenues of £1,133.4m were more than double the previous year as the UK firm reported strong demand for its products from across the globe. Volume shipments of set-top boxes were up 31% to 17.2 million taking Pace to the number two position of global suppliers.
New contracts were secured for HD, HD PVR and new hybrid PVR products with customers including Astro, Comcast, Viasat, Sky Germany, BT Vision, Net Brazil, Cablevision and UPC Broadband. The first commercial whole home solution was launched in the United States as Pace continued to make its presence felt in the US market, which accounted for 49% of all shipments, including the delivery of HD products to MSO Comcast.
In a statement, Pace CEO Neil Gaydon described the results as exceptional: “Pace remains at the forefront of the biggest changes taking place in digital home entertainment. The quality of, demand for, and spend on digital home entertainment is growing. And we are ahead of the market in identifying and investing in new technologies to take advantage of this industry evolution. From 2010 high definition (HD) will become more mainstream and our operator customers will continue to invest in hybrid TV and bandwidth hungry technologies such as 3D, ultra high definition and whole home entertainment systems.”
Pace has also announced the acquisition of Paris-based IP and cable gateways specialist Bewan Systems SA. The €12.5 million purchase is subject to a number of earnout targets and is expected to be completed during the second quarter of 2010.
Berwan will bring Pace additional expertise in xDSL and cable DOCSIS 3.0 IP connectivity technologies that will add to Pace’s existing gateway business.
