Calix to buy Ericsson's FTTH product line

Calix, Inc. (NYSE: CALX) has agreed to buy the FTTH product line of Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) for an undisclosed sum. The two companies also agreed that Ericsson would resell Calix’s newly beefed up access equipment portfolio worldwide.

The agreement centers on the Ericsson EDA 1500 GPON optical line terminal (OLT) and complementary portfolio of optical network terminals (ONTs). The companies expect the product line acquisition to close in the fourth quarter of this year. Calix expects operations related to the acquired assets to be accretive to non-GAAP earnings per share.
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Calix will offer jobs to as many as 61 U.S.-based Ericsson employees. The company also will assume ongoing support of the acquired products.

Ericsson, meanwhile, will sell both its old products as well as Calix Unified Access systems and software as its preferred options for fiber and VDSL2 applications in 180 countries for three years.

"This partnership provides Calix, already North America's fiber access deployment leader, with an extensive new global reseller channel, while our acquisition of Ericsson's fiber access portfolio delivers powerful new complements to our industry-leading Unified Access portfolio," said Carl Russo, president and CEO of Calix, via a press release. "This partnership, built on a clear alignment of corporate strategy and direction, allows Ericsson to fully leverage its strengths in wireless and end-to-end services while relying on Calix to provide innovation and expertise in fixed-line broadband access. We are excited about the opportunity to assume responsibility for development and support of Ericsson's fiber access business, and look forward to working closely with Ericsson and its broad customer base as a preferred global partner."

"We believe that this partnership will provide our existing fiber access customers with world-class support and maintenance, and an expanded portfolio of access systems and software from a leading company totally focused on access," said Jan Häglund, vice president and head of product area IP and broadband at Ericsson, in the same release.

For more information on FTTx systems and suppliers, visit the Lightwave Buyer’s Guide.