Adtran Acquires Nokia Siemens' Fixed Broadband Unit

Financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but Adtran will complete the deal through an asset sale and purchase agreement. The acquisition is expected to close in April 2012 and transfer about 400 Nokia Siemens employees to Adtran, including in engineering, R&D, sales and professional service, according to the companies.

Adtran will gain all of Nokia Siemens' intellectual property related to the business unit, as well as its products and existing customers. Nokia Siemens has also formally agreed to include Adtran products as part of its customer engagements, according to Adtran.

"Service providers around the world are seeing high bandwidth services as an integral component of their future opportunities," said Adtran CEO Tom Stanton in a statement. "This strategic acquisition would position Adtran in key markets with an established customer base; complementary market-focused products; along with engineering, R&D, sales and professional services resources that will enable Adtran to take a significant step forward as one of the world's leading communications solutions providers."

Nokia Siemens, the struggling joint venture of Nokia and Siemens, recently said it would cut 17,000 jobs over the next two years as part of an ongoing restructuring. The company in November said it would focus on end-to-end mobile infrastructure and services with a particular emphasis on mobile broadband.

The company was founded in 2007 but has been unprofitable for all but two quarters and lost about $1 billion in 2010. Nokia and Siemens moved to ballast the venture in September with a roughly $1.35 billion cash injection. Earlier this year, Nokia Siemens acquired wireless infrastructure assets from Motorola Solutions.

Adtran traditionally has not been an active M&A participant but in recent years has made targeted buys in markets such as unified communications and wireless LAN. Earlier this year, Adtran acquired Bluesocket, bringing virtual wireless LAN technology to its portfolio.

"We look at markets in a pragmatic way," Stanton said at Adtran's recent Connect conference for media and analysts. "If you do the right things and come out with products that make sense in the markets you know will be there, ultimately you will gain market share."