Retain its escalating enterprises or split them

Proportion Ownership:  9.61%

Normal Expense: $5.72

Activist Commentary: Scopia is not traditionally an activist trader. However, activist investor Jerome Lande (of Coppersmith Funds and prior to that, MMI Traders) folded his operations into Scopia for the objective of running an activist portfolio within the agency and giving activist guidance and aid on Scopia’s larger sized portfolio, which is a standard extensive-quick fund.

On April 9, 2021, Scopia and the firm entered into a Cooperation Agreement, pursuant to which as extended as Scopia owns 5% of the firm’s prevalent inventory, they have the suitable to appoint two directors to the board, just one of whom is Jerome Lande, head of exclusive conditions for Scopia, and the other to be an independent director. This appointment may well be built at any time prior to the earlier of (x) 15 times prior to the deadline for the submission of stockholder nominations of directors for the firm’s 2022 Yearly Meeting and (y) 75 days prior to the initial anniversary of the 2021 Once-a-year Conference. Scopia agreed to abide by customary voting and standstill provisions.  

Scopia has been a shareholder in the firm for the past two yrs, observing and encouraging the corporation to develop larger organizations and bigger sophistication across equally of its segments. Even though the organization has begun to fulfill that prophecy and gain sector share, the system has been sluggish and the organization has been off on its projections. Having said that, over the past number of months there has been new advancement initiatives on the video clip facet, development on the SaaS aspect, some recovery from Covid and incremental development in the Cable Accessibility phase. As a result, these corporations are closer to significant mass and at a issue in which they could be separated.

There has been a fantastic offer of consolidation in the Video organization. Ericsson divested its MediaKind enterprise to A person Equity, Cisco marketed its Service Supplier Video clip Software program Answers business enterprise to Permira Money and Amazon purchased a related style of company. There could be a lot of firms out there who could be fascinated in Harmonic’s Video clip enterprise, and this has also been an area that has viewed PE curiosity. Harmonic could perhaps get north of $450 million for this enterprise and be left with its Cable Access enterprise, which has been having marketplace share with higher margins and is predicted to continue to mature at 30%+. The would be an option for the Cable Entry business to go on as a standalone small business or it could most likely be taken out also.

So, the company is approaching an inflection level and Scopia wishes to make confident they are using these opportunities critically. Scopia is in a one of a kind placement to observe the company’s development and will be watching to make positive administration is exploring a separation of the enterprises although competently running them. If Scopia wants to action in, they have a contact choice on two board seats. The actuality that Scopia structured the arrangement in such a way displays that they have confidence in the board but also want to have an insurance coverage plan in circumstance points do not development like they hope. 

Ken Squire is the founder and president of 13D Keep an eye on, an institutional analysis services on shareholder activism, and the founder and portfolio supervisor of the 13D Activist Fund, a mutual fund that invests in a portfolio of activist 13D investments.