QUEBEC CITY – EXFO Inc. is another step closer to its planned acquisition French network and subscriber intelligence provider Astellia.
The Canadian network test and monitoring technology maker said Wednesday at the Mobile World Congress that it has acquired 97.44% of Astellia’s share capital and at least 95.07% of the voting rights.
Given that minority shareholders do not represent more than 5% of the share capital or the voting rights of Astellia, EXFO added that it 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.
“With our combined scale, global market coverage, technologies, strong professional services and deep mobile expertise, EXFO and Astellia are well positioned for the next cycle of investments by mobile network operators”, said EXFO's founder and executive chairman Germain Lamonde, in the announcement. “Our customers are transforming their networks to keep up with insatiable consumer demand for more bandwidth and better, faster mobile service."
"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," added Astellia CEO Abdelkrim Benamar. "We deliver the automation, troubleshooting, network intelligence and insights into customer experience that are critical to our customers' business performance."
EXFO bought a 33.1% equity stake in Astellia last August and filed an all-cash voluntary tender offer for its outstanding shares in November.
