Private equity firm Permira has closed its $1 billion re-purchase of Cisco’s Service Provider Video Software Solutions unit and has declared the rebranded “Synamedia” open for business.

Related: Cisco's Just Sold Video Services Unit Rebranded as ‘Synamedia’

Cisco announced the name change in September, then laid out its management team and vision a week later at the IBC Show in Amsterdam.

Besides declaring itself operational in today’s announcement, Synamedia also said that it has hired former Rovi and TiVo chief revenue officer, Dave Longaker, as senior VP and general manager, Americas.

The company boasts more than 590 patents, covering technologies including cloud digital video recording, video processing, security and client software. Synamedia’s team is spread across the U.S, UK, Israel, India, Belgium, China and Canada. Workers provide end-to-end video services to customers spanning advisory, delivery, implementation, training, system integration and customer support.

Synamedia also boasts a client roster of more than 200 pay-TV and media customers including AT&T, Astro, beIN, Bharti Airtel, Charter, China DTH, Comcast, Cox, Disney, Foxtel, Get, Liberty Global, Oi, OSN, Rogers, Sky, Shaw, Tata Sky, Verizon, Viasat and Vodafone.

“While we are in a golden age of TV, our customers face challenges including the rising cost of content, soaring piracy levels, and the impact of large OTT challengers on the market. As an independent entity focused on this sector, we will help our customers optimize their current infrastructure and capitalize on OTT and IP distribution to expand consumer choice and convenience, secure their income and generate new revenue streams,” said Yves Padrines, CEO of Synamedia.

Padrines formerly served as VP of global service provider EMEA for Cisco. The company is also led by Chairman Abe Peled, who was chief executive of NDS back in 2012, when Cisco acquired it for $5 billion and used it as the foundation to force it s Service Provider Software Solutions business.

Private equity firm Permira has identified industry vet Yves Padrines and the designated CEO of a new company that will be formed from Permira’s proposed acquisition of Cisco Systems’s Service Provider Video Software Solutions business.

RELATED: Cisco Strikes Deal to Sell its Video Software Business

To say Padrines will be familiar with the new video software division being formed by Permira is an understatement. He most recently was VP of global service provider for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Russia at Cisco, and was also a long-time exec at NDS.

Padrines joined Cisco following its 2012 acquisition of NDS, the company where a good portion of the services and technologies Permira is acquiring from Cisco originated.

RELATED: Cisco Announces Deal to Acquire NDS for $5 Billion

The move will likewise reunite Padrines with Dr. Abe Peled, senior adviser to Permira, incoming chairman of the new company to be formed from the Cisco deal, and also the former CEO of NDS.

Cisco and Permira announced the deal in May. Under the plan, Permira will create a new, rebranded company focused on video products for the pay TV industry. The lineup will include Cisco’s Infinite Video Platform, cloud digital recording, video processing, video security, and middleware products and technologies.

“I am delighted and looking forward to working again with Dr. Abe Peled and Permira on this unique opportunity to help the company’s major DTH and Cable service provider customers embrace IP distribution to complement and expand consumer choice and convenience, as well as the company’s Telco customers and new entrants to Pay-TV take advantage of the new IP enabled distribution opportunities,” Padrines said in a statement. “At this pivotal time in the industry, the new company will build on Cisco’s SPVSS business, strong customer relationships and technology innovation to deliver an exciting next chapter for our industry, and I look forward to being part of it.”

“Yves is well known to many of the company’s major customers and is well positioned to ensure a smooth transition for Cisco’s service provider customers who will also become the new company’s video customers,” Peled added. “Furthermore, Yves will bring a wealth of experience, industry relationships and strategic vision to deliver on the significant opportunities we see for the new business.”

Cisco Systems has put its video software unit on the block more than five years after the company bulked up in that area by acquiring NDS for $5 billion, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the situation.

Cisco said it doesn't comment on rumor or speculation. 

Cisco acquired NDS, a company focused on content protection/security and video software and user interfaces, in 2012. At the time, NDS fit strategically into a multiscreen platform/initiative called Videoscape at the time (Cisco no longer uses the Videoscape brand, as it now offers a suite of multiscreen video products under the “Infinite” brand).

RELATED: Cox Gasses Up its Guide 

The NDS deal came about six years after Cisco took over Scientific Atlanta, a maker of set-top boxes, conditional access systems and other video and networking technologies, for $6.9 billion.

RELATED: Cisco Announces Deal to Acquire NDS For $5 Billion

If Cisco is looking to unload the unit that came way of NDS, it would continue its selling-off of products that are or were once tied to its service provider video unit, which saw revenues drop 10%, to $227 million, in Cisco’s fiscal Q4. Service provider video represented just 2% of Cisco’s revenue mix in that period. Switching, at 28%, is the largest contributor.

In 2015, for example, Cisco closed its sell-off of a connected devices unit that made set-tops, cable modems and other CPE, to Technicolor, for $600 million. Tied in, Technicolor and Cisco struck a “strategic collaboration agreement” in which they will develop next-gen video and broadband technologies and cooperate on initiatives around the Internet of Things.

RELATED: Technicolor, Cisco Seal the Deal

And NDS might not fit into Cisco’s software-focused network strategy, which included a recent $1.9 billion play for Broadsoft, which makes cloud-based calling and contact center products for business customers.

Paul Ranger, an exec last with Cisco Systems, has joined advanced advertising firm BlackArrow as vice president, sales, according to an update made to his LinkedIn profile.

Ranger most recently was with Cisco, coming on board after Cisco completed its $5 billion acquisition of video security and software company NDS in 2012. Ranger was with NDS for about a decade.

BlackArrow has been asked for further comment about Ranger's appointment, but he is joining the company as it pushes ahead with new growth strategies, including a recent expansion into Europe that has yielded its first deal in the region, with Virgin Media, the U.K.’s largest cable operator that’s now part of the Liberty Global empire. BlackArrow estimated at the time that the addition of  Virgin Media will push its reach to more than 37 million homes, complementing deployments with Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks, and Rogers Communications. Also last year, BlackArrow president Nick Troiano assumed the duties of CEO following the resignation of Dean Denhart.

Updated: BlackArrow confirmed the appointment, noting that, in his new role, Ranger will be focused on the BlackArrow's client base in North America.

“I’m delighted to be joining the BlackArrow team at such a pivotal time for the TV advertising industry," Ranger said, in a statement. "I look forward to partnering with pay-TV operators and content providers to help monetize time-shifted and linear video delivered to any screen, at any time. BlackArrow’s market leading advertising platform and data solutions offer flexible ad models that are enabling next-generation advertising in millions of homes around the world.”

Ranger most recent served as as senior business development manager of video software and solutions technology at Cisco, leading business development and account management efforts for strategic accounts such as AT&T, Verizon Communications, Cablevision Systems, Shaw Communications, Rogers, and Cox Communications.

Before his Cisco and NDS days, Ranger worked at BSkyB, where he helped the company introduce interactive TV capabilities in Europe. 

Photo credit: The TV of Tomorrow Show.