Ixia to acquire Anue Systems

Network test equipment vendor Ixia says it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Anue Systems, Inc., a developer of network visibility tools, for $145 million in cash. The figure is subject to certain adjustments, including an adjustment based on the amount of Anue’s net working capital at closing. The transaction is anticipated to close in the second quarter of 2012, subject to customary closing conditions and approvals.

Ixia believes that the acquisition will position it as a leading player in the rapidly growing network visibility market – a market that the company says is growing over 30 percent per year – and will enhance Ixia’s service provider presence as well as create new opportunities among enterprise customers.

As more applications run in cloud networks and large data centers, service providers and large enterprises need better visibility into their application performance. Traditional monitoring approaches cannot scale successfully due to the sheer number of applications and services, and the immense amounts of traffic across wired and mobile networks, the companies assert. Anue’s Net Tool Optimizer aggregates and filters network traffic to help optimize network monitoring tool use. This efficiency helps customers to maximize IT resources, streamline network troubleshooting, and expand their network monitoring capacity, Ixia says.

“Next-generation cloud providers, mobility operators, and enterprises all require network and traffic visibility to maintain quality of service across application and service delivery,” said Vic Alston, Ixia chief operating officer. “Anue's Optimizer solutions provide customers with a measurable value regarding performance, scale, and resiliency of networks, while enabling the creation of a next-generation platform for quality-of-service delivery across live networks.”

In addition to the Net Tool Optimizer, Anue also offers a line of test instruments for field and lab use, including the Anue 3500 platform aimed at testing such mobile backhaul and Carrier Ethernet related elements as Synchronous Ethernet (SyncE), IEEE 1588, PTP, Circuit Emulation Services (CES, IETF SAToP, IETF CESoPSN, and ITU-T Y.1413), MPLS-TP, and Carrier Ethernet OAM. It also supplies network emulators.

Founded in 2002, Anue grew revenues 51 percent in 2011 to $40.5 million and generated gross margins of 83 percent for the year. For the 12 months ended March 31, 2012, Anue generated $47.6 million in revenues. Ixia expects the transaction to be accretive to non-GAAP earnings beginning in the third quarter of 2012. Non-GAAP earnings exclude stock-based compensation, amortization of acquired intangible assets, and other non-recurring charges, net of the applicable tax effects.

Stifel Nicolaus Weisel is acting as financial advisor and Bryan Cave LLP is acting as legal counsel to Ixia. MHT Partners is acting as financial advisor and Vinson & Elkins is acting as legal counsel to Anue.

For more information on test equipment and suppliers, visit the Lightwave Buyer’s Guide.