Zixi, the leader in IP-based high value live video transport and observability software, today announced the appointment of Marc Aldrich as Chief Executive Officer, effective October 1, 2024. Marc succeeds CEO Gordon Brooks, who has led Zixi for more than seven years and established Zixi as the market leader in delivering live video over IP at scale, and will remain actively involved in the business as Executive Chairman. Zixi is backed by Boston-based software private equity firm Clearhaven Partners since its transaction was announced in June 2024.
Aldrich brings extensive experience in scaling technology businesses. Prior to Zixi, Aldrich was CEO of ThinkAnalytics, and previously served as General Manager of the Media & Entertainment Industry Business Unit within Amazon Web Services where he built and led the development of AWS’ M&E Industry business for five years. Prior to AWS, Aldrich led the Americas sales region for Cisco’s Global Service Provider Segment. In this role, he was responsible for Cisco’s service provider strategy and business relationships for Cable, Telco, and Media customers as well as related channel partnerships and go-to-market segments. In addition to his direct role, Aldrich held global responsibility for Cisco’s Service Provider video architecture, strategy, and global go-to-market. Aldrich has built a strong reputation in the industry for customer-centricity and business transformation.
“Zixi has already built a reputation for innovation and reliability supporting high value media workflows across our industry,” said Gordon Brooks. I worked closely with Marc for 5 years while he was at AWS and experienced his integrity and broad industry knowledge firsthand. “Marc’s experience is exactly what we sought to propel the business into next-level growth. I look forward to my close collaboration with Marc and continued partnership with the Clearhaven Partners team.”
“I’m delighted to welcome Marc to Zixi as CEO,” remarked Michelle Noon, Founder and Managing Partner of Clearhaven Partners. “His experience scaling media technology businesses is a perfect fit for Zixi at its current growth inflection point. I’m equally excited to continue to work with Gordon Brooks in his capacity as Executive Chairman. Over nearly the past decade, Gordon has been instrumental in Zixi’s innovation and growth across broadcast, enterprise, OTT and other market segments and the Company will continue to benefit from his insights and perspective.”
“It’s an honor to join Zixi as CEO,” said Marc Aldrich. “I’ve known and admired Zixi for many years, notably in my prior role at AWS. Zixi’s differentiated software has widespread applicability for reliable, cost-efficient software supporting media transport workflows and orchestration of high value content. There’s enormous continued potential for Zixi in its next phase as we expand market presence and drive adoption to support our customers’ business objectives. I look forward to working with Clearhaven Partners and Gordon as we embark on this next chapter.”
Zixi’s Emmy-winning software platform brings live broadcast-quality video to the world. Zixi is trusted for abstracting the complexity of IP contribution and delivery with full telemetry coupled with AI and advanced analytics for unmatched reliability. Zixi’s software solutions provide end-to-end live IP video delivery at ultra-low latency with orchestration of complex workflows and advanced monitoring across connected nodes to 1400+ customers and 400+ integrated partner offerings to enable reliable broadcast-quality video delivery over any IP network for broadcasters, enterprises, OTT video providers, sports leagues and franchises, service providers, cable operators and telcos around the world. Zixi’s software enables ultra-reliable and scalable performance for the most discerning customer ecosystem including Amazon Prime Video, AWS Elemental Media Connect, FOX, Fubo, MLB, Net Insight, Netflix, NHL, Paramount, Roku, Sinclair, SKY, Univision, Wurl, YouTube TV and hundreds of additional leading media and entertainment organizations globally.
In the current M&E environment where organizations seek efficiency and improved profitability, Zixi demonstrably provides the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO) for large-scale IP video delivery deployments through its innovative software, resulting in up to 60% lower egress costs. Dramatic improvements in high-performance networking leverages DPDK to achieve significant throughput efficiency improvements while utilizing only a fraction of the processing power by bypassing the operating system to communicate directly with the network card resulting in 40x throughput performance compared to open-source options. In addition, Zixi software runs on Graviton ARM 3 processors with an incremental reduction of up to 40% compute costs in AWS realized. These tangible cost savings allow Zixi customers to redeploy their budgets to the creation and monetization of new content acquisition, develop new business models and opportunities to generate revenue for their businesses.
About Zixi
Zixi provides the cloud based and on-premises Software-Defined Video Platform (SDVP®) that enables reliable broadcast-quality video delivery over any IP network, any protocol, any cloud provider and any edge device. The company offers technologies for broadcasters, enterprises, over-the-top video providers, sports leagues, service providers, cable operators and Telcos around the world, giving them the lowest TCO in the industry. Many of Zixi’s clients are delivering and managing thousands of streams, and there is no other alternative in the market that can provide 99.999%+ reliability at scale. Zixi simplifies building and managing congestion-aware live video routes on any network, with support for 18-protocols across any operating environment, with products that are purpose built to provide market leading performance, universal interoperability and an operational control plane that simplifies management and orchestration at scale. With 15+ years of innovation and expertise, the Zixi Enabled Network has grown to over 1400+ media customers and 400+ OEM and service providers that deliver 20,000+ channels daily, with 200,000+ deployed instances in over 120 countries, gathering over 9 billion data points a day while delivering over 100,000 live sporting events a year. This powerful ecosystem of the largest media organizations in the world exchanging live video allows for the creation and acceleration of new content acquisition, business models, and opportunities to reduce cost and generate revenue. www.zixi.com
About Clearhaven Partners LP
Clearhaven Partners is a Boston-based private equity firm focused exclusively on investments in software and technology businesses. Clearhaven was founded in 2019 by an investor-operator team to partner with differentiated, growing software and technology companies. Clearhaven brings a collective 50+ years of software investing and operating experience to its portfolio companies through its partnership approach to value creation to help companies scale profitably. Clearhaven manages more than $1 billion in assets under management as of 6/30/24. Visit us at www.clearhavenpartners.com.
