Nimrod Ben-Natan
Analyst · Needham & Company
Thanks, David, and welcome, everyone, to our first quarter 2026 earnings call. Q1 marked a strong start to the year and validated the strategy we outlined last quarter. We executed effectively across the business with continued strength in rest of market demand. And with our progress to date, we are entering the remainder of the year with improved visibility. Reflecting this momentum, we are raising our full year 2026 broadband revenue outlook. In addition to our strong financial results, this quarter also highlights our progress in expanding Harmonic's growth profile. In a world where AI is making broadband capacity and quality of service even more essential, we are building a uniquely focused broadband company with multiple growth drivers, sustained leadership in DOCSIS, accelerating momentum in fiber, increasing global market share and growing intelligence layer that enables new high-value services for our customers. Turning to Slide 4. Let's look at some of the highlights for the quarter. Q1 broadband revenue rose 43% year-over-year to $121.7 million. A large part of this was from rest of market, which represented 42% of that total. an important indicator of our progress in broadening and diversifying our business. Bookings were also strong in the quarter, driving an 87% increase year-over-year in backlog and deferred revenue. Again, this bolsters our visibility, giving us the confidence to raise our full year outlook. We also continued returning capital to our shareholders, repurchasing approximately 4.2 million shares for $43 million during the quarter. Finally, I want to mention that the pending sale of our video business remains on track to close in the second quarter, positioning Harmonic as a more focused broadband company going forward. The key highlight in the first quarter was the continued acceleration of our rest of market business with year-over-year revenue growth well above our long-term growth target. Beyond the increased revenue contribution, this performance demonstrates the expanding global adoption of the Harmonic platform across a broader range of industry operators. Our deployed cOS base now includes 150 customers serving 45.7 million CPE devices. We continue to see expansion within our Tier 1 accounts alongside new customer wins, reinforcing our leadership position in the market. We added several new customers in the first quarter, including 2 recent wins that illustrate the market traction we are experiencing. First, KBRO selected Harmonic's fiber on-demand solution to drive fiber deeper into its network in Taiwan. Second, Vyve Broadband selected our platform to modernize its network across its U.S. footprint with a clear path for broadband and for DOCSIS and fiber convergence. These wins reflect a broader market trend that plays directly to Harmonic's strengths. Operators are increasingly seeking a platform that can start with a specific use case and expand over time across DOCSIS, fiber and autonomous network intelligence. Fiber is becoming an important growth driver for Harmonic. Over the past year, fiber products represented more than 14% of our appliance and integration revenue, and we expect this contribution to continue growing. In the first quarter, we secured multiple new fiber wins, including with international providers while also expanding deployments with our largest Tier 1 fiber customers. We're also seeing traction with SeaStar, our MDU optical node, including a sizable Q1 booking with a leading European broadband operator. At next week's Fiber Connect conference, we will introduce new outside plant innovations, including the Pearl-1XL and Jetty-3, designed to improve deployment efficiency, deliver industry-leading port density, extend network reach, enhance resilience and simplify operations. These solutions enhance our ability to serve rural MDU and lower density fiber opportunities where deployments, cost and operational complexity are critical factors. Together, our growing fiber traction, expanding portfolio and converged cOS architecture position Harmonic to gain share as operators look for more flexible and cost-effective ways to expand fiber broadband. Our Unified DOCSIS 4.0 strategy also continues to gain commercial traction. During the first quarter, we expanded our DOCSIS 4.0 customer base with new wins while advancing deployments with existing customers. At the same time, we have continued building a solid pipeline for additional opportunities. DOCSIS 4.0 is increasingly about more than extending the network to 1.8 gigahertz or delivering faster downstream speeds. We are seeing operators use DOCSIS 4.0 to increase upstream capacity while they continue densifying their network and optimizing existing infrastructure. With upstream traffic growing rapidly, including approximately 20% annually at one of our leading North American operators, our unified DOCSIS 4.0 solution gives operators a flexible path to higher multi-gigabit upstream performance, whether through full 1.8 gigahertz upgrades, reclaiming spectrum from legacy QAM video, increasing node density or other capital-efficient approaches. As I mentioned, operators are looking for platforms that let them use DOCSIS and fiber together. A recent Light Reading interview with Optimum provides a compelling illustration of this approach. In their West Virginia deployment built on Harmonic's cOS broadband platform, Optimum is leveraging virtualization to modernize HFC infrastructure and consolidate headend facilities by 50%. As their team noted, the architecture enables them to simultaneously deliver XGS-PON and DOCSIS off of the same node, allowing them to build where demand dictates rather than overbuilding to every location. This is precisely the unique value of Harmonic's converged architecture, one platform, multiple access technologies and more capital-efficient choices for operators. Operators are increasingly focused on business outcomes rather than speed alone, a shift that plays directly to Harmonic's strengths. Harmonic is uniquely positioned here because our virtualized platform sees the network in real time across the core, the edge and the subscriber experience. Our relatively new Beacon and Pathfinder solutions already help operators maximize network performance while reducing both truck rolls and customer calls. Early deployments are showing tangible value, including a measured reduction of more than 30% in customer calls following Beacon enablement. The newest addition to our intelligent portfolio is Amply, a multi-vendor amplifier management software solution that extends our network visibility into a part of the network where we have not traditionally played. Built on a unique combination of Harmonic cOS platform intelligence, Beacon Speed maximizer and orchestration capabilities, Amply helps operators identify and address sources of network interference faster and more effectively. Amply maps the Amplifier network uses AI-driven analysis to pinpoint where issues are coming from and helps direct field technicians with precise actionable instructions, including the location and likely cause of the problem. It can also apply mitigation techniques to protect the subscriber experience while repairs are underway. We believe this can significantly reduce repair time and field operation costs, creating meaningful opportunity for measurable OpEx savings while improving network reliability and subscriber experience. We will be showcasing Amply at the upcoming ANGA show in Germany. Our customer momentum is increasingly tied to measurable outcomes. One of our leading customers recently stated publicly that they are improving reliability across the network, are pleased with the results where upgrades have been completed and are seeing measurable progress in NPS. These outcomes are showing up in our customer scores. Our own customer NPS reached 85 in the first quarter, up from 82 at year-end 2025, reflecting the execution, partnership and trust we have built with operators undertaking strategic multiyear network transformations. Turning to Slide 5. As presented during the last earnings call, the market opportunity ahead of us remains substantial. According to Dell'Oro's recent outlook, the cable serviceable addressable market is expected to grow to more than $1.1 billion by 2030. The fiber addressable exceeds $2.6 billion, and our share in that market is growing. On top of this, network intelligence and associated autonomous AI-driven operations uniquely made possible through our virtualized core represent an incremental addressable opportunity and an important new growth vector for Harmonic. We believe longer-term industry investment in broadband technology will not be defined by one upgrade cycle. Rather, we see ongoing reinforcing phases of modernization, DOCSIS 4.0 and upstream capacity expansion followed by network densification, AI-powered autonomous operations, targeted fiber expansion and broader migration to fiber as new demand and economics support it. The multiyear evolution will drive more capacity, automation and intelligence at every layer of the network and more opportunity for providers of the enabling technology. Because Harmonic spans DOCSIS fiber and increasingly intelligent services, we believe we are best positioned to capture market share and create value across multiple investment phases and cycles. Turning to Slide 6. Our long-term strategy remains centered on 4 priorities. First, we are extending our leadership in DOCSIS while accelerating our global fiber position through our converged cOS architecture. This allows operators to modernize with greater flexibility across DOCSIS fiber and future access upgrades. Second, we are increasing customer diversification. The strong rest of market growth we achieved in the first quarter demonstrates meaningful progress towards broadening our revenue base beyond our largest customers. Third, we are leading with intelligence. Our cloud-native architecture and real-time telemetry give us a unique foundation for proactive operation, automated troubleshooting, improved customer outcomes and new recurring revenue opportunities. Fourth, we are driving operating leverage as we simplify our cost structure and become a pure-play broadband business. Together, these priorities are designed to expand our addressable market, diversify our revenue mix and improve our long-term operating margin profile. This is where Harmonic's differentiation becomes clear. We help operators modernize faster with greater flexibility and lower operational complexity. Turning to Slide 7. We are becoming a focused and well-rounded broadband company with leadership in virtualized DOCSIS, growing momentum in fiber and differentiated intelligence layer that helps operators improve reliability, automate operations and deliver better subscriber experiences. The pending sale of our video business will further sharpen our strategic focus, simplify our operating model and provide additional capital to support our growth strategy. We will remain disciplined in capital allocation, investing organically, returning capital where appropriate and considering selective inorganic opportunities where they accelerate diversification or advance our platform. That concludes my opening remarks. With that, I will turn the call over to Walter to walk you through our financials in more detail.