Viavi to buy T&M business of Cobham for $455 mn — after sales drop

viavi-solutions-for-telecomsViavi Solutions announced its decision to acquire the test and measurement (T&M) business of Cobham for $455 million in cash.

Cobham’s test and measurement business generated more than $200 million of revenues in calendar year 2017. The acquisition follows dismal performance by VIAVI during the second quarter ended December 2017.

The acquisition strengthens VIAVI’s position in 5G deployment and diversifies the US-based company into military, public safety and avionics test markets. Large scale 5G network roll outs are expected in 2019 and 2020.

Cobham AvComm and Wireless T&M is one of the important T&M companies in testing communication service providers’ networks from the radio access network through to the network core. It has served military, public safety and aviation markets with its trusted land-mobile radio and avionics test solutions.

“This combination is another step in our NSE strategy of driving operational scale and monetizing our NOL assets,” said Oleg Khaykin, president and CEO of VIAVI.

VIAVI Solutions aims to tap new opportunities in in 5G, software-defined and virtualized testing market through channel expansion and technology sharing.

VIAVI has posted marginal drop in revenue to $201.8 million with net loss of $3.7 million in its second fiscal quarter ended December 30, 2017. Net revenue of VIAVI in the second quarter of fiscal 2017 was $206.5 million, with net income of $49.2 million.

VIAVI generated revenue of $121.5 million from Network Enablement, $32.1 million from Service Enablement and $48.2 million from Optical Security and Performance Products in Q2.

The company is anticipating strength in network test spending and 3D Sensing product adoption in 2018.

VIAVI generated 54.6 percent revenue from Americas, 22.6 percent from Asia-Pacific and 22.8 percent business from EMEA customers for the quarter ended December 30, 2017.