Entropic Communications is a provider of

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping level ...

products for the connected home. Founded in 2001, the company is headquartered in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

, US, and maintains offices worldwide. The fabless semiconductor company invented the MoCA® (

Multimedia over Coax Alliance The Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) is an international standards consortium that publishes specifications for networking over coaxial cable. The technology was originally developed to distribute IP television in homes using existing cab ...

) home networking technology, creating

Direct Broadcast Satellite Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location.ITU Radio Regulations, Section IV. Radio Stations and Systems ...

(DBS) Outdoor Unit (ODU) single-wire technology, and developing the industry's first ARM® processor and OpenGL graphics

Set-top box A set-top box (STB), also known as a cable converter box, cable box, receiver, or simply box, and historically television decoder or a converter, is an information appliance device that generally contains a Tuner (radio)#Television, TV tuner inpu ...

(STB),

System-on-a-Chip A system on a chip (SoC) is an integrated circuit that combines most or all key components of a computer or electronic system onto a single microchip. Typically, an SoC includes a central processing unit (CPU) with memory, input/output, and dat ...

(SoC). Entropic completed its initial public offering on December 7, 2007, listing on the

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

exchange under the ticker symbol ENTR. Entropic was acquired by

MaxLinear MaxLinear, Inc. is an American electronic hardware company. Founded in 2003, it provides highly integrated radio-frequency (RF) Analog signal, analog and Mixed-signal integrated circuit, mixed-signal semiconductor products for broadband communic ...

for a total consideration of $287 million on February 3, 2015.

Products

Entropic is a semiconductor company in the connected home market and makes Integrated Circuit (IC) technology and platform software: * STB SoC Solutions: digital STB components and systems for satellite, terrestrial, cable and IP television (

IPTV Internet Protocol television (IPTV), also called TV over broadband, is the service delivery of television over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. Usually sold and run by a Telephone company, telecom provider, it consists of broadcast live telev ...

), markets. It primarily consists of STB SoCs, but also includes

DOCSIS Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) is an international telecommunications standard that permits the addition of high-bandwidth data transfer to an existing cable television (CATV) system. It is used by many cable televisio ...

modems, interface devices and media processors. * Home Networking: In 2004, Entropic introduced its MoCA home networking product, which was a chipset to use coaxial cable in a home network. It announced MoCA 1.0, 1.1 and MoCA 2.0, and its MoCA chips are deployed at U.S. service providers including

Comcast Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...

Cox Communications Cox Communications, Inc. (also known as Cox Cable and formerly Cox Broadcasting Corporation, Dimension Cable Services and Times-Mirror Cable), is an American digital cable television provider, telecommunications and home automation services comp ...

DIRECTV DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...

Time Warner Cable Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, o ...

, and

Verizon Verizon Communications Inc. ( ), is an American telecommunications company headquartered in New York City. It is the world's second-largest telecommunications company by revenue and its mobile network is the largest wireless carrier in the ...

as well as in Europe via UPC/

Liberty Global Liberty Global Ltd. is a British-Dutch-American multinational telecommunications company domiciled in Bermuda, with headquarters in London, Amsterdam and Denver. Its respective legal names are Liberty Global Holdings Limited (UK), Liberty Glo ...

. * Broadband Access Solutions: Entropic delivers Ethernet-over-Coax (EoC) broadband access products, under its c.LINK™ brand. The EoC technology delivers "last few hundred meter" connectivity for broadband access to single-family homes and multiple dwelling units. It is predominantly deployed in China, and helps MSOs meet the government-mandated Next Generation Broadband (NGB) initiative. * Direct Broadcast Satellite Outdoor Unit (DBS ODU) Solutions: This technology claims to simplify the installation required for simultaneous reception of multiple channels from multiple satellites over a single cable. It includes ICs for its Band Translation Switch (BTS), Channel Stacking Switch (CSS™) and digital Channel Stacking Switch. It is deployed at DBS operators including

DISH Network DISH Network L.L.C., often referred to as DISH, an abbreviation for Digital Sky Highway, is an American provider of satellite television and IPTV services and wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation. The company was originally establ ...

Canal Digital Canal Digital was a Nordic pay TV and internet service provider in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland that was founded in March 1997 as a joint venture between the French pay TV company Canal+ and the Norwegian telecommunications operator T ...

and Sky Italia.

In Asia

In 2005, the company opened its Asia regional headquarters in Hong Kong. It also started operating in Korea in 2010 and in Japan in 2011.

Controversy

In March 2014, Entropic's former CEO

Patrick Henry Patrick Henry (May 29, 1736 ld Style and New Style dates, O.S. May 18, 1736une 6, 1799) was an American politician, planter and orator who declared to the Virginia Conventions, Second Virginia Convention (1775): "Give me liberty or give m ...

was charged with three misdemeanors. Two of the charges were dropped. The third was reduced to an infraction. The charges stemmed from an altercation at Sundance Film Festival involving reality TV star Ariane Bellamar. On June 19, 2014, he was found guilty of the assault charge; his sentence consisted of a $400 fine and 40 hours of community service. He was also ordered to undergo an assessment for alcohol and anger management. Patrick Henry was not terminated from his position. In September 2014, Entropic hired

Barclays Barclays PLC (, occasionally ) is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services ...

to explore the possibilities of selling the business, which concluded with a sale to

on February 3, 2015. Patrick Henry resigned as CEO prior to the sale, in November 2014. On November 10, 2014, a decision by the board of directors stated that it was the right time for a leadership transition, leading to Dr. Ted Tewksbury replacing Patrick Henry as interim President and Chief Executive Officer.

Major acquisitions

* RF Magic, Inc. (2007) – Acquisition of DBS ODU technology and products * Trident Microsystems, Inc. (2012) acquisition of selected assets related to Trident's STB SoC solutions, including digital STB components and systems for satellite, terrestrial, cable and IP television (IPTV), markets * PLX Technology, Inc. (2012) – Acquisition of selected assets relating to PLX's direct broadcast satellite intellectual property and corresponding technologies including the digital channel stacking switch (dCSS) semiconductor product * Mobius Semiconductor, Inc. (2013) – Acquisition of assets related to analog mixed-signal semiconductor solutions, including ADCs, DACs, ADPLLs,

SerDes A Serializer/Deserializer (SerDes) is a pair of functional blocks commonly used in high speed communications to compensate for limited input/output. These blocks convert data between serial data and parallel interfaces in each direction. The ter ...

and other proprietary intellectual property

References

{{Reflist Semiconductor companies of the United States Companies based in San Diego Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq