Home control company Savant said Monday it’s buying Artison, a speaker company founded by audio industry veteran Cary Christie in 2003. Terms weren’t disclosed. The purchase allows Savant to leverage Artison’s key patents and engineering on audio over IP, Savant CEO Robert Madonna emailed us. “Watch for details on new integrated audio experiences to be announced at CEDIA,” Madonna said. Artison’s patents cover advanced speaker technologies, and it's on schedule to deliver a compact multichannel amplifier technology this year, said Savant. Artison’s current lineup comprises specialty loudspeakers with customizable grills, including sound bars, subwoofers and surround models and the acquisition will enable Savant to expand its pro audio offering, Madonna said. At Savant, Christie’s title will be chief technology officer-audio. Christie's team's expertise in making “beautiful looking and sounding audio products with an emphasis on audio over IP will be well leveraged at Savant,” Madonna said. Other Artison employees are “remaining onboard,” and the Artison facility in Minden, Nevada, will continue operations, he said. Savant's purchase of Artison is the second acquisition by a control company this year to bring audio speaker technology in-house. Control4 bought Triad Speakers in February (see 1702280028). On the value of an audio company to a control firm, Madonna told us: "For Savant, being able to provide our integrators and their clients with an end-to-end audio and video over IP solution is a huge value, adding tremendous flexibility and enhancing overall system performance significantly." Artison gives Savant a "premium whole-house entertainment product line that leverages audio over IP technology from source to speaker -- with the engineering capability to rapidly develop new products as market trends evolve," said Madonna. On whether the company is looking toward additional acquisition opportunities from adjacent categories, he said the company is "always looking at opportunities that enhance the products and services we bring to integration professionals and end users."

Tremor Video is selling its buyer platform to mobile advertising technology company Taptica International for $50 million, it said in a Monday announcement. Tremor said the sale lets it focus on its video self-service platform work and gives it resources to put toward over-the-top and connected TV.

As it looks to harmonize FCC 2016 approval of its broadband terrestrial low-power service plans across jurisdictions worldwide (see 1612230060), Globalstar had talks with regulatory agencies in 15 countries beyond what it announced in May, CEO Jay Monroe said in an earnings call Thursday. He said the company expects to have filed a number of applications internationally for terrestrial use of its 2483.5-2500 MHz band spectrum by year's end. He said it expects FCC approval of its mobile satellite service license modification application "within days," after the comment period ended in July without opposition (see 1705250011). He also said the company is in partnership discussions "with numerous companies" that either have or want their own terrestrial networks, since Globalstar doesn't expect to build its own.

The FCC 2016 order approving Charter Communications' buys of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks apparently contains a scrivener's error on who is to do an annual report about Charter compliance with the settlement-free interconnection condition, the buyer said in a docket 16-197 filing Tuesday. The order says the company is to submit a report from the independent compliance officer (ICO), but it surely meant from the company compliance officer, Charter said, since it wouldn't make sense for the company being monitored to submit a report to the FCC from the ICO since all other ICO reports are submitted directly to the agency. The condition as worded also makes Charter reporting on its interconnection compliance incomplete and is inconsistent with all other conditions, the company said. Charter said unless the FCC says otherwise, it will file a report from the company compliance officer and the ICO will submit a compliance report 60 days afterward.

Discovery Communications told us it doesn't anticipate its planned $14.6 billion takeover of Scripps Networks Interactive will require FCC review. It didn't comment when asked for clarification Tuesday. Some had speculated SNI might turn in its FCC licenses or that any license transfers to Discovery would be routine and not necessitate opening a docket (see 1707310062).

E.W. Scripps Co. bought Katz's four broadcast networks for $292 million, the buyer said in a news release Tuesday. “Bounce, Grit, Escape and Laff" all reach more than 80 percent of all U.S. households, it said. “A growing number of viewers are consuming content from new over-the-air networks as a complement to over-the-top services,” said Scripps CEO Rich Boehne. Scripps was a 5 percent owner of the business before the deal, which is expected to close in October, the release said. Katz founder Jonathan Katz “will continue to lead the Katz networks business” and the 130-employee company will remain in the Atlanta area, Scripps said. The Scripps move is confusing "when investors have growing concerns on the overall network TV industry" and "further M&A opportunities are likely to come up in broadcast with deregulation on the horizon," Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker emailed investors. Monday, Scripps Networks Interactive, which also has been partly controlled by the Scripps family, agreed to be bought by Discovery Communications (see 1707310062).

Cisco completed the $610 million cash-and-assumed-equity-awards buy of Viptela (see 1705010064), a software-defined wide-area network (WAN) provider, Cisco said. Part of the buyer's "Network Intuitive vision," the acquisition comes amid "massive transformations in enterprise networking" as waves of software defined networking move into local area networks and WANs, Senior Vice President-Product Management Scott Harrell blogged Tuesday. The FTC recently cleared the deal (see 1707180003).

Amplifier Technologies Inc. said it bought Datasat Digital Entertainment, formerly DTS Digital Cinema. Datasat products will continue to be sold under that brand, and will be manufactured by ATI in its Montebello, California, plant, and at Datasat's existing manufacturer in Moorpark, California. Datasat brings software engineering to the deal, said ATI owner Morris Kessler in a Monday statement. Robert McKinley, Datasat executive vice president-operations, said combined sales, engineering and operations teams will work together to provide continuity with current offerings while moving new initiatives forward. The brands will showcase each other’s technologies at the CEDIA show in September in booth 3335, the RBH sound room and a Dynaudio suite. ATI didn’t respond to questions. Terms weren't disclosed.

Windstream completed a $227.5 million cash acquisition of Broadview Networks, a cloud-based unified communications (UC) services vendor, Windstream said in a Friday news release. The FCC last month cleared the deal, which was announced in April (see 1706150019 and 1704130002). Broadview’s UC product complements Windstream’s SD-WAN, said Windstream CEO Tony Thomas. The acquirer named Broadview Chief Operating Officer Brian Crotty president of the phone company’s mid-market and small-business division.

The FTC cleared Motorola Solutions buying Kodiak Networks, said a recent early termination notice. Motorola announced the deal in May (see 1705010043) and said it will close later this year.