Astellia to acquire Ingenia Telecom

Feb. 20, 2014 - PRLog -- Rennes, France, February 20^th 2014 -Astellia, leading provider of network and subscriber intelligence for mobile operators, announced the acquisition of Ingenia Telecom, provider of network analysis and radio optimization solutions for mobile operators. Astellia reinforces its E2E offering with a probeless solution adding new capabilities of RAN and SON analysis.

Founded in 2007 and based in Valencia (Spain), Ingenia Telecom has developed innovating technologies to optimize 2G, 3G and 4G networks and have rapidly been recognized as a leading telecommunications player in the Spanish and Latin American market. As Astellia, Ingenia Telecom meets the needs of operators in their transition to 4G and is helping them reduce their OPEX / CAPEX while guaranteeing their subscribers with the best customer experience.

Astellia is recognized as a worldwide RAN champion thanks to its probe-based, vendor-independent, real-time monitoring and troubleshooting solutions. With this acquisition, Astellia completes its E2E offering with Ingenia Telecom’s probeless RAN and SON optimization solution. IDC estimates that the SON and RAN optimization market will reach $1 billion in 2015, compared to $700 million in 2013.

Multiple drivers are pushing mobile operators to introduce SON in their networks, from OPEX savings to customer experience enhancements. Ingenia Telecom has developed an advanced SON solution for real-time analysis of self-optimization and self-organization networks which can be sold in addition to or independently of Astellia’s SON monitoring solution.

The acquisition is financed with a bank loan and cash. It also includes an earnout subordinated to revenue targets payable annually at the end 2014 to 2016. With shareholder’s equity of about € 30 million, Astellia maintains a low debt ratio inferior to 20%. In 2013, revenues of Ingenia Telecom represent less than 10% of Astellia’s revenues and operations were close to breakeven. The full accounting consolidation starts from January 1, 2014.

With a team of 70 people, mainly in R&D, Ingenia Telecom and Astellia also share common values. The integration maintains the legal entity in Spain and brings together teams within the Service, Products and Sales business units of Astellia. Technological and commercial synergies will quickly be implemented and initial customer contacts offering the complementary solutions are already underway.

Domingo Muñoz, CEO Ingenia commented: “We believe this is an opportunity to work with a partner that has the right experience to develop the market presence of our advanced offer and keep the strong value of our Company. Astellia is an excellent choice for our team.”

Christian Queffelec, CEO of Astellia said: “We quickly identified a strategic interest for Astellia but the turning point was the fact that our company cultures are very similar. This will allow us to move quickly towards the essential, namely the availability of an enriched and highly anticipated E2E solution to offer a high performance and quality mobile internet.”