Sterlite Tech expands global presence with Metallurgica acquisition
Sterlite Tech has signed definitive agreements for the acquisition of Italy-based, specialised optical fibre and cable manufacturer Metallurgica Bresciana S.p.A (Metallurgica).
Sterlite Tech has signed definitive agreements for the acquisition of Italy-based, specialised optical fibre and cable manufacturer Metallurgica Bresciana S.p.A (Metallurgica).
The second day of this year’s ANGA COM conference and exhibition in Cologne saw the Broadband and Media Summit prompt lively debate amongst panellists, particularly regarding the recently announced Vodafone Deutschland-Unitymedia acquisition. Keely Portway reports
Moderator, Claus Strunz mediated between participants Dr. Manuel Cubero, CCO, Vodafone; Lutz Schüler CEO, Unitymedia; Conrad Albert, deputy CEO and group general council, ProSiebenSat.1 Media; Carsten Schmidt CEO, Sky Deutschland; and Dr. Dirk Wössner, member of the board of management for Germany Deutsche Telekom.
Having now completed its acquisition of General Cable, Prysmian Group is launching a new organisation to begin the company’s integration.
Prysmian described the newly created group as a ‘world leader in the energy and telecom cable systems industry.’ It has global headquarters in Milan and reported sales of more than €11 billion (pro-forma as of 31 December 2017). There are approximately 30,000 employees across 112 plants and 25 research and development centres in more than 50 countries.
Prysmian Group has now completed its acquisition of General Cable, the company has announced. Prysmian Group signed the definitive agreement to acquire General Cable at the end of last year in a deal that valued the latter at $3 billion, including debt and certain liabilities.
GTT Communications has confirmed that its acquisition of Interoute – the operator of one of Europe’s largest independent fibre networks – is now complete.
Ciena Corporation has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held network performance management software provider, Packet Design.
Ciena says that the acquisition would help to accelerate its Blue Planet suite of products by allowing the extension of its intelligent automation capabilities beyond Layers 0-2 and into IP. The system itself was attained via the company’s 2015 acquisition of Cyan (see Ciena buys Cyan for its software smarts).
UPC Switzerland has acquired a cable network that serves some 15,000 homes in the Höfe region of Germany, from EW Höfe.
EW Höfe said that it decided to sell its existing cable network to long-standing partner and Liberty Global-owned company, UPC Switzerland, in order to focus on the expansion of its new fibre optic network. This is set for completion in 2019.
TalkTalk intends to sell its direct B2B business to The Daisy Group for £175 million. The two companies have each signed heads of terms on a proposed deal which would transfer all existing TalkTalk direct B2B customers to Daisy.
The deal includes around 80,000 small, small to medium and large businesses, and TalkTalk says that this represents less than 20 per cent of the company’s B2B revenues. The transaction is subject to contract, with the intention to complete in late July 2018.
UK-based alternative fibre network provider, CityFibre has agreed the terms of a recommended cash acquisition by Bidco.
Newly incorporated company, Bidco – which is indirectly owned by a consortium including private equity house Antin and Goldman Sachs’ West Street Infrastructure Partners – is paying 81p per share for CityFibre in a deal worth £537.8 million.
GTT Communications has continued on the acquisition trail with the purchase of Accelerated Connections (ACI), a Toronto-headquartered provider of managed networking, voice over IP (VoIP) and colocation services, serving large distributed Canadian enterprises.
As the pandemic underlines the value of the internet more than ever, its underlying technology is making one of its biggest transitions for years.
The data centre market is a particularly wide-ranging one, with one of the driving forces in recent years the emergence of the hyperscale data centre or cloud service provider.
As the world struggles to settle into the ‘new normal’, today’s optical networks need to be flexible in their architecture blueprint, while adapting to new technologies to provide the kinds of new capacity and service options to meet accelerated demand for higher bandwidth.
To address the undeniable growing demand for higher bandwidth, optical vendors have been playing their role with the development of various coherent optical transceivers for different areas of the market, each with its own set of design considerations.
The demand for bandwidth has unarguably skyrocketed in recent years, thanks largely to the increased appetite for online gaming, content streaming and social-media use.
The importance of reliable connectivity has never been more recognised than it is now. While ambitious targets have been in place across the world for fibre deployment for some time, the ongoing pandemic has served to push it to the forefront.
Looking into the future of telecommunications, it could be argued that AI and telcos will effectively transform each other, explains Raf Meersman
How do we, as an industry, build better broadband for a post-pandemic world? The answer could be fixed, suggests Stefaan Vanhastel
Altnets could be the key to connecting rural areas in 2021, argues Michael Armitage
A glance at the current market for fifth-generation coherent optics, and some of the latest developments available