Viavi To Acquire Spirent Communications For $1.3B To Drive 5G, AI

Here’s what to know about Viavi’s $1.3 billion blockbuster communications and telecom deal for Spirent Communications.

IT communications company Viavi Solutions plans to buy telecommunications test specialist Spirent Communications for approximately $1.3 billion in a move to accelerate artificial intelligence, 5G and cloud-native innovation.

As part of Viavi’s planned acquisition, private equity juggernaut Silver Lake said it will make a $400 million investment in the Chandler, Ariz.-based company.

Viavi CEO Oleg Khaykin said combining the two companies’ communications and test technologies will boost its products and applications, as well as accelerate growth in new markets.

“We are uniting two teams with a shared passion for developing compelling and cutting-edge offerings for customers and a commitment to technological excellence,” Khaykin said in a statement.

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For fiscal year 2023, Viavi generated $1.1 billion in revenue, down about 14 percent year over year.

Viavi is a global provider of network test, monitoring and assurance offerings targeting industries such as telecommunications, cloud, aerospace and first responders. Spirent provides offerings that address the test, assurance and automation challenges of technologies—including 5G, SD-WAN, cloud and autonomous vehicles.

Viavi Acquisition To Drive AI And 5G Innovation

The goal with Viavi’s acquisition of Spirent is to drive greater engineering, research and development and design capabilities to accelerate new offerings and product innovation, particularly around AI and machine learning, security, cloud-native architecture and automation.

“Combining with Viavi brings together a highly complementary product offering which can be marketed globally,” said Spirent CEO Eric Updyke in a statement.

The acquisition will position the combined teams to bring to market innovative offerings across high-growth cloud service providers, enterprise/IT networks, 5G private networks, 6G+ and positioning, navigation and timing verticals.

“It will enable Spirent to build on the strategic progress we have made to date with a partner that has the scale and resources to capitalize on the long-term growth opportunities ahead,” Updyke said.

Operational efficiencies are anticipated to result in annual run-rate cost synergies of up to $75 million two years after the completion of the acquisition.