The sweet irony – cable modem shipments are hitting a new record – and one of the early cable modem pioneers is being sold like a purple velvet jacket from the 1960s only Austin Powers would love.

Motorola, it seems has won the bid for Terayon and will pay between $2 and $2.25 a share, valuing one of the early cable broadband players between $155-to-$175 million. Cisco and Harmonic were considered to be bidding for the cable gear maker that had some run-ins with the SEC.

Good reminder for all those who are entrepreneurs amongst us – no matter how hot a start-up you might be today, it takes less than a decade to go from headline to being a mere footnote in technology history!