Movers and Shakers: M&A Wrap-Up
Mitel and Mavenir
Business communications firm Mitel (NASDAQ:MITL) (TSX:MNW) and software-based networking solution provider Mavenir Systems merged in March in a deal valued at $560M. Mavenir was a solid pickup for Mitel, and its resume included building the IMS voice solution that T-Mobile used to launch its VoLTE service last year.
Ciena and Cyan
Network solutions vendor Ciena Corporation (NYSE: CIEN) picked up Cyan, an SDN play, for approximately $400M in May. “The addition of Cyan accelerates the availability of a complete solution for our customers to deliver virtualized networks and services on-demand,” said Gary Smith, president and CEO of Ciena, in a statement announcing the acquisition.
Cisco, OpenDNS, Lancope and Acano
Giant Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) made several purchases that further enhance their slate of services. The purchase of OpenDNS for $635M and Lancope for $452.5M both help Cisco to grow its offerings in the realm of security, threat visibility, and behavior analytics. The $700M purchase of Acano, a UK-based videoconferencing hardware business, helps Cisco grow its collaborative technology offerings.
The Semiconductor Feeding Frenzy
Meanwhile, some of the largest acquisitions of the year were in the semiconductor space. Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) picked up Altera for about $16.7B in June. Meanwhile, Avago Technologies (NASDAQ: AVGO) picked up Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM) for $37B in May, and Freescale Semiconductor (NYSE: FSL) acquired NXP Semiconductors (NASDAQ: NXPI) for approximately $11.8B in March. In addition, Dialog Semiconductor picked up Atmel for $4.6B in September.
These deals, along with the $67B Dell acquisition of EMC (NYSE: EMC), have an impact on numerous sectors beyond communications; but are nevertheless worth a mention, as they demonstrate the tenor (and tempo) of the times and will have a cascading effect on equipment manufacturers, carriers, and so many others.
Looking ahead
This has been a pretty long list, but it’s certainly not exhaustive. Mergermarket tracked 2,168 deals in the technology, media, and telecommunications sector Q1-Q3 2015. What’s more, there’s plenty of possible consolidation on the horizon. Will Cox ever change their position and make a deal? Will T-Mobile’s prince finally come? Stay tuned to Pipeline in 2016 and well beyond.
