Acton, Mass.-based video software and services vendor SeaChange International announced another round of layoffs following a fiscal second quarter revenue decline of 30.4% to $11.9 million.

The company’s losses in the quarter nearly quadrupled to $8.3 million, as customers held off on renewing SeaChange software subscriptions.

“Some transactions that we expected in Q2 did not happen during the quarter and were delayed,” said SeaChange CEO Ed Terino at Wednesday’s investment analyst call. (Transcript courtesy of Seeking Alpha.) “These delays resulted from customers moving more slowly on video platform investment decisions because there was little urgency to make an upgrade or expand their video platform and our customers opted to prioritize other investments outside of their video delivery ecosystems.”

SeaChange didn’t specify how many workers are affected, but the company said it would save around $6 million from a restructuring that would involve mostly staff cuts and be completed by the end of the company’s third fiscal 2019 quarter.

From 2016 through this year, SeaChange more than halved its workforce, from around 660 employees to approximately 300. And as noted by Light Reading—which was the first to report on SeaChange’s staff cuts—the company moved software coding operations from the Philippines to Poland.

Terino did identify some green shoots. SeaChange booked two transactions that “were significant in revenue” but came in too late to be counted against the Q2 bottom line.

“We also booked $1 million in advertising software and equipment with the Tier 1 telco that needed to expand their advertising platform due to the growth of their advertising activity,” he said.

“In addition, we expect Liberty Global will make additional purchase related to their one back office initiative in the second half of fiscal 2019. We also have several PanoramiC opportunities in the second half of fiscal 2019,” Terino added. 

SeaChange International said one of its key customers, Liberty Global, will use the vendor’s Adrenalin multiscreen video platform to help power the MSO’s next-gen, cloud-based “Horizon 4” services.

SeaChange announced the deal on solid Q3 results. Shares were up 60 cents (21.43%) to $3.40 in after-hours trading Wednesday.

Financial terms of the new Liberty Global deal were not disclosed, but it keeps SeaChange firmly engaged with a major global operator with deployments across Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America.

The cloud-based approach will support a virtualized video platform architecture for Horizon, and enable Liberty Global develop and deploy services at a faster pace, SeaChange said.

“As video platforms transition to virtualized cloud infrastructure and enable advanced capabilities such as replay TV and network DVR to multiple devices, SeaChange will continue to support customers like Liberty Global to monetize their video assets and modernize their video delivery platforms,” Ed Terino, SeaChange’s CEO, said in a statement.

SeaChange, which has been undergoing a restructuring and facing calls by an investor to sell the company, announced the deal as it disclosed Q3 financial results.

RELATED: Investor Pushes SeaChange to Sell

SeaChange posted Q3 revenues of $23.4 million, up 17% year-on-year, and GAAP income of $900,000 (3 cents per fully diluted share), versus a year-ago loss of $8.4 million (24 cents per share). It ended the period with cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and marketable securities of about $37 million, and no debt outstanding.

“SeaChange's financial performance in the quarter represents excellent progress in reaching our year-end goals more quickly. Across all metrics - revenues, gross margins and non-GAAP EPS - we outperformed our guidance,” CFO Peter Faubert said.

SeaChange expects Q4 revenues of $20 million to $24 million, and a loss from operations of $0.03 per basic share to operating income of $0.05 per fully diluted share.

For the full fiscal 2018, SeaChange raised expected revenues to the range of $77 million to $81 million, and a narrowed GAAP loss of 14 cents to 22 cents per basic share.

SeaChange International disclosed this month that it is making deeper cuts as the multiscreen video tech and software company moves ahead on a plan to return to profitability.

In an 8-K document filed Feb. 3, SeaChange said it was implementing cost-savings moves tied to its North American operations and a workforce reduction that will result in annualized cost savings of about $8.1 million, once complete. Those actions will also result in restructuring and severance charges of about $1.5 million, the filing added.

SeaChange did not say how many people were to be affected by the reduction mentioned in the 8-K, but SeaChange CEO Ed Terino told the Worcester Business Journal that the company has cut more than 200 jobs on a global basis within the past year. He said SeaChange now has fewer than 500 employees, down from the more than 700 that were with the company when Terino took over the CEO post in April 2016.

RELATED: Terino In, Samit Out as SeaChange CEO

SeaChange on Wednesday issued this statement from Terino to Multichannel News:

“The actions over the past year associated with our turnaround, including recent reductions in the US, will provide anticipated cost savings of over $30M as we continue to keep our focus on video service providers, while improving operations and targeting a return to profitability within our current fiscal year.”

SeaChange is trying to pull off that turnaround amid an ongoing tough stretch. In  December, it announced a 31% drop in revenues driven largely by lower service revenues, but said then that more than 20 customers were “quoted for upgrades” to Adrenalin, a multiscreen video backoffice that succeeds SeaChange’s Axiom platform. Terino also noted then that Rave, SeaChange’s OTT platform, has about 30 opportunities in the pipeline, and that the company recently NitroX, a multiplatform system that delivers a common UI across multiple devices, including set-tops, Android TV-powered boxes, smartphones and tablets.

The 8-K also detailed the recent promotion of Jonathan Rider to SVP and COO that includes an annual base salary of $325,000 per year, a one-time equity award of 100,000 stock options, eligibility to participate in an annual bonus program worth up to $260,000 and a change-in-control severance agreement.  

Shares in SeaChange International were down about 9% Wednesday morning after the multiscreen video software company reported the day before that Q3 revenues dropped 31% year-over-year driven largely by lower service revenues.

Speaking on Tuesday’s call, SeaChange CEO Ed Terino said the dip was in part to customer delays tied to the deployment of video and gateway platforms and a reduction in support and maintenance revenues “related to several tier 1 operators.” SeaChange was also stymied by lower product revenues attributed to delays in decisions by several customers he said.

The Q3 results arrived amid a reorg and cost-cutting initiative aimed at helping SeaChange return to profitability. SeaChange said it has reduced its operating cost by close to $30 million so far in its fiscal 2017.

On the positive side, Terino said the company has more than 20 customers “quoted for upgrades” to Adrenalin, a multiscreen video backoffice that succeeds SeaChange’s Axiom platform. Among them, there’s a “seven-figure booking” for Adrenaline with a customer in North America that is replacing its legacy video backoffice.

He said Rave, SeaChange’s OTT platform, has about 30 opportunities in the pipeline. The company has two announced Rave customers: BBC and Filmbankmedia, an international non-theatrical distributor of films and TV shows.

RELATED: SeaChange Banks OTT Deal

Terino said SeaChange’s largest customer (believed to be Liberty Global) is working with the company to deploy a cloud-based of the Adrenalin backoffice that will enable the operator to run it in one data center for 17 different countries. But he also stressed that they have not finalized commercial terms on that deal, but noted that the expectation is that the customer would start to transition to a virtualized environment sometime in the second half of 2017.

“This project will enable our customer to maintain and upgrade all 17 countries at a significantly lower cost with far more frequency than is possible today,” he said.

SeaChange recently released NitroX, a multiplatform system that delivers a common UI across multiple devices, including set-tops that run on the Reference Design Kit (RDK), the integrated software platform for IP-connected set-tops and gateways being managed by Comcast, Liberty Global and Charter Communications, as well as Android TV-powered boxes, legacy set-tops, and smartphones and tablets. Service providers and OTT players are among the targets for NitroX.

Looking ahead, NitroX’s roadmap for the first half of fiscal 2018 will include support for Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, Comcast (X1) and Samsung’s Tizen platform, Terino said.

SeaChange posted Q3 revenue of $20 million and a GAAP loss of $8.4 million, or 24 cents per basic share.

In Q4, the company expects revenues in the range of $22 million to $24 million and a GAAP loss of 13 cents to 18 cents.

SeaChange plans to introduce a new release of Adrenalin, its multiscreen video backoffice system, later this month, as well as a new release of Infusion, the company’s linear and VOD ad insertion product, for its OTT-focused Rave platform.

SeaChange has not yet announced the full capabilities of those releases yet, but “one of the key capabilities of the next release of Adrenalin will be 4K TV” as well as a “business management system” that will help customers provide more promotional offers for VOD, Ed Terino, SeaChange’s CEO, said Tuesday on the company’s fiscal Q1 earnings call that provided an update on SeaChange’s product roadmap.

“We currently have a fairly sizable number of installed Adrenalin customers and some of the features and functions that we're putting into the new releases are designed to help our customers drive their own revenues,” said Terino, who replaced ousted SeaChange CEO Jay Samit in April.

Terino noted that all of the company’s video and advertising products will be deployable in cloud or “on-premises” environments.

On the financial front, SeaChange posted a loss of $9.6 million (28 cents per share) on revenues of $21.6 million, down 7% due largely to a decrease in revenues tied to Nucleus, SeaChange’s CPE software platform.

However, overall product revenues rose by 33% as SeaChange migrated its remaining Axiom customers to its Adrenalin platform.

Though SeaChange is trying to build a customer pipeline for Rave, its cloud-based OTT product, the company doesn’t expect to see “significant revenue contribution” from it until fiscal 2017.

“Our goal is to build and convert that pipeline into double-digit customer base by the end of fiscal 2017,” Terino said.

He also shed more light on the strategy behind SeaChange’s recent acquisition of DCC Labs, a Warsaw, Poland-based software developer and integrator for set-tops and multiscreen devices that SeaChange will use to strengthen its ability to support the Reference Design Kit (RDK) as well as other platforms, including Android TV.

Marek Kielczewski, SeaChange's new SVP of CPE, who joined the company via the acquisition, said he’s working on a “long-term go-to-market plan to take the in-home business forward.”

The focal point, he said, is to target next-gen user experiences for a wide range of devices and platforms. “We want to make it easier for our customers to deploy our client software and to field with a cross-platform, attractive and intuitive UI,” Kielczewski said.

The BBC Store, a new multiscreen digital sell-through offering, went live last month, and represents a win for SeaChange’s new OTT video platform, Rave.

BBC Store, developed by BBC Worldwide, kicked off with more than 7,000 hours of content, offering both new and archived programs from the BBC vault.

The BBC Store, which is adding up to 70 hours of programming on a weekly basis, is running on SeaChange-supplied backoffice system, handling functions such as metadata management and content curation.

“Our technology partners including SeaChange have helped us to make it really easy for audiences to buy the shows they love and enjoy them on laptops, tablets and smartphones,” said David Gibbons, director of global operations, BBC Worldwide, in a statement.

“We’re delighted to help bring the BBC’s unmatched archive to life for U.K. consumers,” said Rochus Schreiber, SVP, Services & GM, EMEA SeaChange.

 “Our technologies and services are at the core of the BBC Store hosted in the cloud as the central point of content and product management,” added Rochus Schreiber, SVP, services and GM, EMEA at SeaChange.

Other SeaChange Rave partners include ROK Mobile and  Algar Telecom of Brazil, among others.

SeaChange said it will power a new “all-you-can-eat’ premium over-the-top video service that ROK Mobile is preparing to launch in the first quarter of 2016

The deal comes to light a week after SeaChange said it had won a premium OTT platform deal with a then-unnamed U.S. prepaid mobile service provider. ROK Mobile is SeaChange’s first announced OTT deal in mobile category and follows last year’s launch of Rave, SeaChange's multiscreen OTT platform. SeaChange has also announced Rave agreements with BBC Worldwide and Algar Telecom of Brazil

ROK’s coming service will feature “thousands” of Hollywood and international movies and TV series and will be added to the provider’s service plans, which include unlimited talk, text, data and music for $49.99 per month. ROK is a prepaid MVNO that delivers services on the Sprint and T-Mobile cellular networks, and, in July, announced a third network partner that reportedly is Verizon. ROK Mobile subs also have access to more than 20 million WiFi hotspots (Android users automatically connect, while iOS users must login manually).

SeaChange said it is providing the OTT platform and mobile video content for ROK’s service for both iOS and Android devices.

“There are many different mobile service providers out there as well as numerous options for streaming films and video, but with our service we can offer them together in one affordable service, said ROK Mobile chairman Jonathan Kendrick, in a statement.

“Phones and tablets have become the first video screen for millions of people and they’re not turning back,” added Jay Samit, CEO of SeaChange. “Consumers are starved for all-you-can-eat movies and TV, and ROK Mobile is inviting everyone to the table.” 

Though ROK Mobile is in the prepaid category, its coming video service will enter the marketplace as other mobile carriers amp up their. For example, Verizon this week launched an invitation-only trial for go90, a free, ad-supported "mobile-first" OTT offering.

SeaChange International’s position at Liberty Global and the competitive OTT threat posed by MLB Advanced Media were among the hotter topics on the multiscreen video tech company’s fourth quarter call on Thursday morning.

SeaChange, whose product line include its Nucleus software for set-tops and gateways and its Adrenalin multiscreen video backoffice, among others, took a cautious tone with respect to growth activity  in general and, in particular, with Liberty Global.

“I want to be as conservative as possible, because we do not control when Liberty expands and announces their expansions and takes down more licenses [for Nucleus],” SeaChange CEO Jay Samit said in response to a suggestion from an analyst that guidance (SeaChange expects first quarter revenues to be in the range of $22 million to $24 million) showed that SeaChange isn’t seeing a lot of momentum in Nucleus or Adrenalin. “It’s baked, it’s running great, it's doing phenomenal in Poland, but I do not control that timing. So to bake that into our numbers we know it will be a slow build quarter-by-quarter. This isn’t a back-ended year or some big hockey stick year.”

But he does expect another “significant decline in our legacy products,” offset by new design wins for Adrenalin and Nucleus.

Samit also addressed opportunities for Rave, its new software-as-a-service for premium OTT video platform, noting that SeaChange is responding to RFPs, just completed a Rave trial with a telco, and is in a trial with a long-standing customer of its previous-gen Axiom VOD backoffice platform. BBC Worldwide and Algar Telecom of Brazil are among SeaChange’s known Rave customers.

“We’re getting the calls from all the right customers,” Samit said, but acknowledged that he doesn’t expect Rave to “translate into GAAP for this year.”

With respect to Rave, SeaChange was also asked to address the general OTT competitive landscape, including some recent momentum by MLB Advanced Media, which includes some work with HBO and the premium programmer's Internet video products, including its new stand-alone service, HBO Now. 

SeaChange, Samit said, is “dealing with a number of major media companies out there and we're not running across MLB, except in Wall Street Journal articles. They have got great technology, but they haven't set themselves up yet to really handle being in the service business, and that's one of our great advantages in that.”

On the financial front, SeaChange posted a fiscal fourth quarter net loss of $6.1 million (19 cents  per share), on revenues of $31.3 million, versus $35.6 million in the year-ago quarter. Analysts were expecting a loss of 4 cents per share.

SeaChange shares closed down $1.05 (13.13%) to $6.95 each on Thursday.

Taking aim at studios, TV networks, sports leagues and MVPDs, SeaChange on Wednesday introduced Rave, a platform designed for “premium” over-the-top video.

SeaChange said Rave, which will support the company’s data analytics and advanced advertising technologies, will cover a variety of OTT apps and services, including video-on-demand, time-shifted, live and downloadable content.

According to the company, the Rave platform will support a presentation layer for multiple devices and operating systems, a unified subscriber experience via a component called Rave Unite, and a services layer spanning content preparation, analytics, advertising, social integration, personalization, as well as live and on-demand video, time-shifted TV, and network DVR capabilities.  

The product seemingly expands the business scope for SeaChange, which has been traditionally focused on the MVPD sector via products such as Adrenalin, its multiscreen video backoffice platform, and Nucleus, an in-home gateway software platform that will play a key role at Layer3 TV, an emerging “virtual” MVPD. Adrenalin is also part of the Rave platform, the company confirmed.

SeaChange said Rave is backed by its Professional Services organization, and that its platform has already been picked by BBC Worldwide for the BBC Store, a service scheduled to launch in 2015. Algar Telecom of Brazil is also a Rave customer, using it to expand a cloud video services trial. SeaChange is in discussions with others. 

The rollout of Rave also appears to place SeaChange in more direct competition with premium-focused online video publishing and management companies, such as Comcast-owned thePlatform, Ooyala, and Piksel, as well as Vubiquity, which also provides content aggregation services, Cisco Systems (Videoscape), and Ericsson, which recently upgraded the Mediaroom product it acquired from Microsoft and introduced a cloud-based, OTT-facing product called MediaFirst.

“Until now the OTT phenomenon has mainly been about reaching the biggest possible audience, not about getting the most revenue from the TV and video content that consumers most prize,” said Jay Samit, SeaChange’s recently appointed CEO, in a statement.

SeaChange announced Rave as it prepared to release fiscal third quarter results. 

Update: SeaChange posted Q3 revenues of $30 million and a GAAP loss of $5.9 million (19 cents per share), versus revenues of $37.8 million and net income of $500,000 (2 cents per fully diluted share) in the year-ago quarter.  SeaChange expects fourth quarter revenues to be in the range of $30 million to $34 million. 

Layer3 TV has selected SeaChange International as a “key vendor” for the in-home platform that will power the startup’s coming “next-generation” cable service, which apparently will be capable of supporting 4K/Ultra HD video.

Denver-based Layer3 TV hasn’t revealed a lot of details about that service, but said Monday that its in-home platform will be based on SeaChange’s Nucleus video gateway software, and that Layer3 TV has engaged SeaChange Professional Services for the integration of Nucleus and testing of Layer3 TV’s “chosen 4K IP set-top.”

As reported in this week’s Multichannel Newscover story on the emergence of “virtual” multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs), Layer3 TV expects to launch services sometime in 2015, but has not announced any set-top partners and which markets it will target first. 

Layer3 TV’s selection of Nucleus appears to shed more light on the startup’s technology direction. As described by SeaChange, Nucleus is an “implementation” of the Reference Design Kit (RDK), the preintegrated software stack for IP-capable set-tops and video devices that’s being managed by Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Liberty Global.  Among that group, Comcast already uses RDK-based boxes for its widely deployed X1 platform, Liberty Global will lean on the RDK for a new cloud-based version of its Horizon TV platform, and TWC has already selected Humax to develop the MSO’s first RDK-based box – an IP-only client.

As for Layer3 TV, a number of current job postings, including one for an embedded systems engineer/architect and another for an embedded applications developer (both to be based in Boston), highlight the RDK among the specific technologies and abilities that Layer3 TV is interested in.

Update: SeaChange confirmed that RDK is an optional component of Nucleus. 

SeaChange’s Nucleus platform is pre-integrated with Adrenalin, the vendor’s backoffice for multiscreen video services, supports several set-tops and gateways, including the Arris XG1 and DCX3600, the Pace Xi3 and RNG150, and the Technicolor DCI1807, and several “connected device” types, including the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, iOS and  Android tablets and smartphones, and select smart TVs and Blu-ray players.

SeaChange said Nucleus positions Layer3 TV “for rapid innovation of cloud-based services,” including the ability for consumers to search, stream and store TV shows, movies and personal video, and tap into “powerful applications including whole-home DVR.”

“Nucleus is helping Layer3 TV hit the ground running with an array of capabilities that can quickly evolve with consumer habits and preferences,” said Layer3 TV CEO Jeff Binder, in a statement. “Building our in-home strategy with SeaChange’s software and systems integration expertise puts us in control of our gateway hardware options and lets us keep our focus on innovating at the service layer for high-impact subscriber engagement across devices.”

“Layer3 TV is preparing to transform video services and SeaChange is thrilled to be its partner in delivering a breakthrough service-oriented IP gateway,” added Jay Samit, the recently appointed CEO of SeaChange.  “Nucleus puts our customers in the best possible position for capturing the opportunities raised by disruptive technologies. We’re eager to support Layer3 TV as it enhances the programming and distribution ecosystem with vastly differentiated entertainment experiences.”

Layer3 TV, founded in 2013, recently opened its new Denver headquarters and has raised about $21 million so far. 

SeaChange International said its board has unanimously appointed Jay Samit as CEO, succeeding Raghu Rau, who was named CEO in April of 2012 following five months as the video technology company’s interim leader.

Samit (pictured), a self-described serial entrepreneur who spent the last year teaching students how to build high-tech startups, most recently served as president of ooVoo, a social video chat service, and was CEO of SocialVibe, a digital advertising technology company. He is also an exec late of Sony and EMI, where he spearheaded digital media efforts, and built a million-member social network for college students while at Universal Studios.

Samit takes the helm following SeaChange’s transition into a software-focused company that divested non-core assets along the way. During Rau’s tenure as CEO, Seachange sold U.K.-based video acquisition and aggregation service On Demand Group to Avail-TVN (now Vubiquity), and sold its broadcast server and storage business to a private investment group.

SeaChange has been pushing ahead with a portfolio centered on Adrenalin, its multiscreen video backoffice platform, and Nucleus, a software platform for set-tops and gateways. SeaChange has also developed a stack for the Reference Design Kit (RDK), the pre-integrated software platform that is current managed by Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Liberty Global.

Although SeaChange has been the subject of M&A rumors in recent years, with TiVo and Rovi among the companies said to have taken a look at SeaChange, Rau has talked about the exploration of “tuck-in” acquisitions.

Samit said his plan is to grow SeaChange, believing that the company has the goods to take advantage of a global multiplatform video market that is exploding.

“The market opportunity has caught up with the vision,” he said. “Now it’s about executing and remaining a global leader.”

“After a thorough and deliberate succession process, the Board of Directors is delighted that Jay will lead SeaChange as we build on our market leadership in multi-screen video and create shareholder value,” said Thomas Olson, chairman of SeaChange’s board, in a statement. “With more than thirty years of experience in digital video, Jay has a thorough understanding of the expanding landscape of video and has successfully deployed new technologies with leading media and telecommunication companies around the globe. Jay understands the needs of our current customers and his experience in digital video will enhance our ability to deliver for them in the future.”

Olson also extended his appreciation to Rau for “providing very effective leadership at a critical time in the company’s history…Raghu was the right person to lead SeaChange at a pivotal time and he deserves our thanks for his many accomplishments.”

Last month, SeaChange posted a non-GAAP fiscal second quarter loss of $2.8 million (8 cents per share) on revenues of 29.8 million. It ended the quarter with cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of $110.9 million and no debt outstanding.

SeaChange International has a chief technology officer again.

Almost 18 months after former CTO Steve Davi left to join Synacor, SeaChange has appointed software vet Shiva Patibanda to SVP and CTO.

Patibanda, who joined SeaChange in 2010 following the video software company's acquisition of middleware vendor VividLogic, which he founded in 1999, will now direct the company’s technology strategy while also continuing to head up its In-Home business, which includes its Nucleus video gateway software. SeaChange is one of dozens of vendors that have licensed the Reference Design Kit, the integrated software platform for IP-capable devices that is now managed by Comcast and Time Warner Cable.

"Shiva has a strong track record for software product innovation and delivery  for SeaChange's core video service provider customers," said Raghu Rau, CEO, SeaChange, in  a statement. "His entrepreneurial spirit and approach for working in close collaboration with our customers' technology leaders and standards-setting bodies has resulted in the creation of market defining products. I have tremendous confidence in Shiva's ability to lead our technology strategy and help  ensure SeaChange's achievement of its strategic growth initiatives for expansion into new products and new markets."

Patibanda has served as chairman of the Home Audio Video Interoperability consortium and also served on the board of the IEEE 1394 Trade Association. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering and an MS in Computer Science from Louisiana State University.