November 7, 2001 Deal gives the fiber-optic testing vendor protocol-level performance-management capabilities.
EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering (www.exfo.com) has completed its acquisition of Avantas Networks Corp. Avantas supplies fiber-optic testing and optical-network performance-management equipment. Avantas's products support protocols and data-transmission rates ranging from OC-192 to 64 kbits/sec, and including Asynchronous Transfer Mode, Synchronous Optical Network, and Ethernet.
"EXFO plans to take advantage of Avantas's highly experience research and development team to penetrate the critcal protocol-layer testing market and almost double its addressable market size," EXFO said when announcing the deal's completion. "According to a report on the ATM, SONET, and SDH test-equipment market from Frost & Sullivan, the global protocol-layer test-equipment market is expected to increase from $1.6 billion in 2001 to $3.1 billion in 2005."
EXFO president and chief executive Germain Lamonde said, "During the past 16 years EXFO has developed core competencies in fiber-optic physical- and optical-layer testing. The Avantas acquisition represents a natural evolution for us to enter the protocol-layer testing market and provide telecommunication carriers as well as system manufacturers with a fully integrated solution."
