Zixi’s Gordon Brooks on Clearhaven deal, future of content distribution

Zixi, a provider of IP-based video delivery solutions, recently announced a partnership with Clearhaven Partners, marking a significant shift in the company’s ownership structure and strategic direction.

Gordon Brooks, CEO of Zixi, recently shared insights into this partnership and the company’s future plans in an interview with NewscastStudio.

Zixi acquired by private equity firm Clearhaven Partners

The move comes as Zixi’s previous lead investor, Schooner Capital, exits after a 13-year investment period.

Brooks explained the transition: “Schooner Capital was founded 53 years ago by Vin Ryan, who was the original investor in Iron Mountain. They ran out of Iron Mountain stock several years ago, so they needed to sell two portfolio companies a year to fund new investments.”

Clearhaven’s acquisition of Zixi included a buy-out of existing investors, with the executive team reinvesting alongside Clearhaven.

Brooks emphasized the strategic fit, noting, “Clearhaven understands the video industry, understands media. They own Wowza and a few other video-oriented companies. It was really, really good finding somebody who really understood and appreciated that, and then also understood and appreciated Zixi’s kind of foundational role in this whole IP transformation that’s going on in the industry.”

The partnership positions Zixi for potential future growth opportunities, including the possibility of a sale, IPO or acquisition.

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“It put us in a position for a future sale or an IPO, but it also puts us in a situation where we can acquire. So you’ll likely see us being a little bit inquisitive if we find the right companies to buy,” noted Brooks. 

Zixi’s interest in acquisitions stems from its organic growth into broader aspects of the media workflow.

Brooks noted that acquisitions could accelerate this expansion, particularly in areas that complement Zixi’s strengths.

“We do a lot with data, so more data is a good thing for us, and data that we may not get organically from our product that might allow us to get closer to the consumer would be interesting to us.” 

The company’s market position is bolstered by its long-standing presence and extensive integration network.

“We’ve got 400 integrated partners… that’s not something you can build in six months or a year or two years; that’s taken us a decade to do.”

Zixi’s technological capabilities include dynamic low latency, which allows for adaptive latency based on network conditions and patented technology for seamless video delivery across multiple paths.

“We analyze over nine billion telemetry data points every day across our clients,” said Brooks, noting the scale of Zixi’s operations.

The company’s solutions have been used in high-profile events and by major broadcasters, such as this year’s Super Bowl and MLS. Zixi’s platform also enables large-scale implementations, such as its work with Fox.

“Fox has 196 affiliates, they use Zixi to take those affiliate feeds’ into the cloud to transcode, to monitor and manage, and then uses it to distribute those to Amazon Prime, YouTubeTV, AppleTV, anybody who takes it,” Brooks explained.

The company supports multiple protocols and offers proprietary compression technology that can significantly reduce egress costs from cloud platforms. This flexibility allows Zixi to cater to various client needs and preferences.

Looking ahead, Brooks sees a larger shift away from traditional satellite and fiber transmission methods. 

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“I think it going to be another 10 or 12 years before most people are off of satellite who want to get off. But it’s happening, it’s not happening as fast as we thought it would, but there’s some very big things happening that I think will change a lot of people’s opinion on what can be done,” said Brooks.

Brooks also highlighted a challenge in the industry regarding total cost of ownership (TCO) calculations.

“Our industry does not do a very good job with TCO. People will make decisions based on price of software or price of hardware or price of computer or whatever, but nobody’s really putting it all together and looking at what it takes to implement it, what it takes to operate it,” he said.

Zixi aims to educate the market and provide tools to help clients understand the full costs of operating video delivery systems.

As Zixi enters this new phase with Clearhaven, the company is ready to capitalize on ongoing industry shifts toward IP-based video delivery and cloud technologies.