- Exfo announced the definitive acquisition of the French company Astellia for €25.9 million.
- The Canadian company, specialist in fibre optic testing and monitoring of mobile networks, extends its offer with Astellia’s solutions aimed in particular at improving the quality of service of mobile network operators.
Exfo announced the company has acquired 97.44% of the share capital and at least 95.07% of the voting rights of Astellia, French specialist in the performance analysis of mobile networks and subscriber experience, following the closing of the second phase of a public tender offer. The announcement was made at Mobile World Congress.
With headquarters in Rennes, France, Astellia reported sales of €38.6 million in 2017, and has over 400 employees and more than 120 customers worldwide. The company’s solutions and services help mobile network operators improve service quality, maximize operational efficiency, reduce subscriber churn and develop revenues in core network, RAN, LTE and SDN/NFV deployments.
“Together, Exfo and Astellia are in a stronger position to help operators make the most of their 3G and 4G investments as well as deploy 5G, RAN and C-RAN infrastructures,” said Abdelkrim Benamar, Astellia’s CEO. “We deliver the automation, troubleshooting, network intelligence and insights into customer experience that are critical to our customers’ business performance.”
Given that minority shareholders do not represent more than 5% of the share capital or the voting rights of Astellia, Exfo intends to implement a mandatory squeeze-out of the remaining shares and de-list Astellia from the Euronext Paris Exchange. The entirety of Astellia’s equity is valued at approximately €25.9 million on a fully diluted basis.
