Quick Hits

RBC Capital Markets Tops M&A List

DENVER — RBC Capital Markets’ Communications, Media and Entertainment
Group, which includes cable and telecommunications investment banker
RBC Daniels, said Wednesday that it
completed nearly $48 billion in North
American mergers, acquisitions and
capital-markets transactions in 2010, a
65% increase over the $29 billion completed
in 2009.

“2010 saw a signifi cant increase in
industry activity from the lows of 2009,”
RBC Capital Markets said in a statement.
“We are optimistic about the
momentum in the dynamic communications,
media and entertainment sectors as we head into 2011.”

While RBC Daniels wasn’t the only component of the CME Group — it includes
bankers in New York and Canada — the Denver operation closed some
pretty big deals in the past year.

Among the deals completed by RBC Daniels in 2010 were Charter’s sale
of 65,000 customers in seven states to Cobridge Communications and
Knology’s $165 million acquisition of Sunfl ower Broadband.

According to data gleaned from deal tracker Thomson Financial, RBC Capital
Markets completed 15 M&A transactions in 2010, ahead of JP Morgan
(12), Morgan Stanley (11) and Bank of America Merrill Lynch (11).

Viacom Names Bakish To International Post

NEW YORK — Viacom said last week that it has named former MTV Networks International
president Robert Bakish to the newly created position of president
and CEO of Viacom International Media Networks.

In his new role, Bakish will oversee Viacom’s Media Networks properties
that operate outside the U.S., including MTV Networks International, BET Networks’
international channels and
non-premium Paramount-branded
networks. Bakish will also continue
to serve as Chairman of
Viacom 18, the company’s joint
venture in India, and as a member of the boards of Viacom’s joint ventures
with British Sky Broadcasting and Telecom Italia Media.

Based in New York, Bakish will report directly to Viacom CEO Philippe
Dauman. Viacom International Media Networks includes 145 television channels
in 160 countries and territories, as well as related digital properties and
consumer products businesses. Its premium entertainment brands MTV, Nickelodeon,
Comedy Central, VH1, VIVA, TMF (The Music Factory) and Game One
reach nearly 650 million households.

Ascent Media to Hold Special Meeting on Acquisition

ENGLEWOOD, COLO. — Ascent Media will hold a special meeting of shareholders
on Feb. 24 in Santa Monica, Calif., to vote on the proposed sale of its Content
Distribution Business to Encompass Digital Media for about $120 million.

Ascent, a unit of Ascent Media Group which is majority-owned by Liberty
Media, announced the deal in December. The Content Distribution Business
provides outsourced network-origination services to satellite, cable and payper-
view programming networks through facilities located in the U.S., United
Kingdom and Singapore. Encompass, which operates two of the largest independent
broadcast facilities in the U.S., agreed to pay $113 million in cash
and assume about $7 million in Ascent debt. If the deal is approved by Ascent
shareholders, it should close later in the first quarter.

The announcement follows Ascent Media’s announcement in November that
it has agreed to sell its Creative Services and Media Services businesses to
Deluxe Entertainment Services Group. Following the consummation of both
transactions, AMC will have sold the substantial majority of the AMG operating
businesses.

BBC’s iPlayer Exec Crosses Pond to Intel

SANTA CLARA, CALIF. — Intel
has hired Erik Huggers,
director of the BBC’s Future
Media & Technology division,
as general manager of its Digital
Home Group, which sells
microprocessors for cable
set-top boxes and consumerelectronics
devices like
“smart” TVs.

Huggers joined the BBC in
2007 and was responsible for
delivering BBC content over
the Internet, including the
popular iPlayer application, as well as interactive TV
and mobile. He also oversaw the BBC’s Broadcast
and Enterprise Technology Group and research-anddevelopment
activities.

Prior to the BBC, he was with Microsoft, where he
led global business development for Windows Media
Technologies, and was director of business development
for Endemol Entertainment’s interactive
division. Huggers replaces Brad Daniels, interim
general manager of Intel’s Digital Home Group.

Arris Test Guns DOCSIS to 800 Mbps

SUWANEE, GA. — Arris successfully tested a cable
modem that delivers data at up to 800 Megabits per
second — more than five times as fast as the speediest
U.S. residential broadband available today —
with South Korean telecom operator SK Broadband.

The test, performed in SK Broadband’s labs, used
an Arris C4 CMTS with software release 7.4 and an
SK Broadband 16x4 modem to bond 16 downstream
DOCSIS 3.0 channels.

In a similar test, German cable operator Kabel
Deutschland in November 2010 said it had achieved
a download speed of 1.17 Gigabits per second in a
field trial conducted over its 862-MHz system in Hamburg
using Cisco Systems’ cable-modem termination
system and cable-modem equipment.