Comcast buys $150m stake in Arris

Comcast has agreed to buy a stake in set-top box maker Arris for $150 million.

Arris announced the agreement yesterday to sell roughly 10.6 million shares of its common stock, valued at $150 million, to Comcast. The deal will be completed in conjunction with Arris' purchase of the Motorola Home business from Motorola Mobility, a subsidiary of Google, which was worth $2.35 billion.

As a result, according to the statement, Comcast and Google will each own approximately 7.85 percent of outstanding Arris shares once the takeover is completed. In addition, as part of the Motorola Home business acquisition agreement, the shares issued to Comcast will reduce the amount of share stock set aside for Google as the the tech giant's cash consideration will increase by $150 million.

"We are very pleased that Comcast has agreed to make this significant investment in Arris," said Bob Stanzione, Chairman and CEO of Arris. "We believe this investment by one of our largest customers is a strong indication of customer support for the Motorola Home acquisition and its potential to accelerate innovation to the benefit of the industry and consumers."

The deal is expected to close at the same time as the completion of the Motorola Home acquisition.

The acquisition of Motorola Home by Arris landed the firm an additional 5,000 employees in 18 locations, and over 500 customers in 70 countries. Traditionally, Arris concentrates on network infrastructure and telecommunications equipment, but now also provides set-top boxes to Comcast.