CommScope outbid rivals to acquire Casa Systems’ cable business unit, putting to bed the ongoing bankruptcy saga of one of Verizon’s 5G network infrastructure providers.

CommScope in a statement said its bid of $45.1 million was the “highest and best bidder” to acquire Casa Systems’ Cable Business. That bid was placed as part of an auction process tied to Casa’s bankruptcy proceedings.

CommScope said the acquisition will bolster its Access Network Solutions business “including enhancing its virtual CMTS and PON product offerings.”

“As a leader in the cable industry, we are quite pleased by the opportunity to acquire Casa’s cloud-native network solutions,” CommScope CEO Chuck Treadway stated. “Adding Casa’s technology to our portfolio will allow us to provide a seamless transition for our combined customer base that utilizes both integrated and virtual CMTS products. This transaction provides stability to Casa’s customers while allowing CommScope to further grow our customer base as we enable customers to migrate to distributed access architecture solutions on their own timeline.”

A “sale hearing” on the deal is scheduled for June 4, with CommScope expecting the deal to close on June 6.

The CommScope bid usurped a previous agreement Casa entered with Vecima Networks in early April. That deal included an undisclosed base amount but also allowed Casa to conduct an auction process to solicit a higher potential bid.

Vecima in a statement said it is now a “backup bidder” in the process, having proffered up $44.95 million for Casa’s assets.

“Vecima conducted extensive due diligence prior to the auction and based on those insights made the decision at the end of the auction not to increase its bid any further when the proposed price was no longer reasonably supported by Vecima’s valuation of the assets,” the firm wrote.

Dell’Oro Group analyst Jeff Heynen noted in a blog post tied to the initial Vecima bid that Casa Systems’ cable assets had gained a significant footprint at several tier-1 cable providers like Charter Communications, Claro and Rogers. However, it was excluded from a major Charter upgrade program and was losing revenues due to license changes.

Heynen did note that “Casa’s cable products are well-regarded in the industry for their architecture and reliability. We regularly hear from cable operators that the C100G platform continues to serve as the core of their broadband offering.”

Casa Systems had previously closed on the sale of its 5G mobile core and radio access network (RAN) business to Lumine Group for $32.25 million. That deal included Casa System’s Axyom cloud-native 5G core software and RAN assets.

Verizon has been using some of Casa Systems’ 5G core components to power its private network offerings, which was part of a broader investment Verizon made into Casa Systems. That deal included Verizon purchasing a nearly 10% equity stake in Casa Systems for $140 million and signing a purchasing agreement valued at up to $140 million over the entire term.

Adam Koeppe, SVP for technology strategy and planning at Verizon, said at the time that the carrier was going to plow Casa System’s cloud-native 5G core platform into the carrier’s private network efforts. He explained that Verizon would use Casa Systems’ platform to deploy a 5G core or multi-access edge computing (MEC) system onto just about any infrastructure environment an enterprise customer might be running. This includes a customer’s private cloud or on-premises bare metal system.

“When we look at new functions that are coming onto our core network, our 5G core capabilities are all cloud-native,” Koeppe told SDxCentral. “So it was really important for us to ensure that Casa provides us with the solutions that we’re working with them on are all cloud-native so they fit right into our architecture very seamlessly, and the private network with MEC is a tremendous growth area.”

Casa Systems’ international subsidiaries are not debtors in the Chapter 11 filing, but it did note that some of those assets will be included in the two pending sales. It also stated that its Netcomm business in Australia has started its own reorganization proceeding in that country and is not part of the U.S. process.

Casa Systems’ bankruptcy saga began just months after CEO Michael Glickman told SDxCentral that the vendor was working toward more financial stability, highlighting that it has been able to pay down about $100 million of its long-term debt position, which at that time stood at around $180 million. Glickman added that focus would continue as the vendor looked to narrow its focus into areas where it saw revenue-generating opportunities that would allow it to further solidify its financial position.

“The good news is we do have a really strong platform, which enables us to continue to get really good support both from our equity investors as well as our lenders,” Glickman said.

That support never materialized as Glickman in a statement tied the asset sales to an unsustainable business model. The vendor last posted quarterly earnings for the third quarter of 2023, which showed a year-over-year uptick in revenues and a slight improvement in net losses for the vendor.

“Like many in our sector, Casa has experienced a significant decline in revenue and profits due in large part to industry-wide downward capital investment and procurement trends in the cable and telco markets,” Glickman noted in a statement. “We also have incurred significant investments to bring our 5G mobile core and RAN products to market. We believe the sales of our businesses through a Chapter 11 process will maximize value, preserve jobs and minimize disruption for our customers.”