Arris shelled out the big bucks to lock down Motorola Home last year, but it appears that its recent acquisition of SeaWell Networks marked a return to the company's more frugal ways.

Arris, which announced its acquisition of the adaptive bit rate streaming specialist last month, revealed in its 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it paid approximately $5.7 million for Ontario-based SeaWell. That’s somewhat of a bargain considering that SeaWell, founded in 2008, had raised about $15 million, according to TechCrunch data.

SeaWell was Arris’s first acquisition since closing its $2.35 billion acquisition of Motorola Home, the maker of set-tops and network gear. SeaWell founder and CEO Brian Collie was among the SeaWell employees that joined Arris following the closure of the acquisition on April 17.

Arris said SeaWell gives it some key video streaming packaging capabilities, including just-in-time packaging systems that allow service providers to save on storage space by rapidly packaging adaptive bit rates streams into their appropriate platform, device format and right resolution as the end user requests them. SeaWell, which had notched deals with the Nemont Telephone Cooperative and Time Warner Cable before being acquired, also makes a manifest manipulation technology that enables next-gen targeted advertising and personalized video services.

During Arris’s first quarter earnings call last week, company chairman and CEO Bob Stanzione referred to SeaWell as a “tuck-in or an enabler” that Arris will integrate into its Network & Cloud business and the unit's continued development of its multiscreen IP video delivery capabilities. 

“It blends in nicely to our broader strategy around multiscreen and IP video” he said, pointing to ongoing work on network DVR and TV Everywhere technologies. Stanzione also said SeaWell’s technology will also help Arris in the area of targeted IP video ad insertion.

In its first acquisition since wrapping up its purchase of Motorola Home last April, Arris has nabbed SeaWell Networks, a company that specializes in adaptive bit rate streaming technologies.

Arris did not name a purchase price, but said Toronto-based SeaWell and its employee base of less than 50 is being folded into its Network & Cloud business. Brian Collie, SeaWell’s founder and CEO will also join Arris and report to Peter Burke, Arris’s SVP and GM, video systems.

Burke said SeaWell will give Arris important stream packaging capabilities, including just-in-time packaging systems that allow service providers to save on storage space by rapidly packaging adaptive bit rates streams into their appropriate platform, device format and right resolution as the end user requests them.

SeaWell also makes a manifest manipulation technology that enables next-gen targeted advertising and personalized video services, Burke said, noting that Arris will be integrating SeaWell’s expertise and products into its product roadmap in the coming months.

"This acquisition will create new opportunities for our employees, customers and the industry. This combination will provide the next-gen TV solutions our customers need to more quickly and cost-effectively transition to IP and multiscreen video,” Collie said in a statement.

Arris and SeaWell were tech pals before the deal. Last year, they announced an integrated targeted ad platform for multiscreen video covering all “major” adaptive bit rate protocols.

SeaWell’s known customers include Nemont Telephone Cooperative, Columbus International of the Caribbean, and, according to ScreenPlays Magazine, Time Warner Cable. Toronto-based SeaWell named Joan Gillman, executive vice president of TWC and president of TWC Media, as an independent board member in July 2012.

SeaWell, founded in 2008, has raised $15 million, according to TechCrunch data. Its investors include BDC Venture Capital, Northwater Capital, and the MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund.