AT&T authorizes a major purchase of company shares in this week's capital markets news round-up:
Nujira gains new funding
U.K.-based Nujira Ltd. recently announced that it had obtained approximately $20 million in additional funding for long-term product development. The company currently stands as one of the leading providers of Envelope Tracking Technology, which can improve the performance of wireless devices including 4G smartphones. With its latest funding round, Nujira has gained a great deal of additional capital to support projects such as its Coolteq chips.
"Envelope Tracking will shortly be a standard component in 4G smartphones and tablets, but we aren't just focused on how ET can be implemented in the latest handsets; we are already working on the next three generations of our ET chips," said Nujira CEO Tim Haynes. He added, "The new investment will be important in helping us execute our aggressive growth plans, as we look to take advantage of our position as the leading authority on ET."
AT&T OKs repurchase plan
AT&T Inc.'s board of directors recently gave the go-ahead to repurchase as many as 300 million of the company's shares with no expiration date. This is the fourth such measure to be approved since December 2010. This latest attempt at regaining company stock from public holders will account for approximately 6 percent of AT&T common shares that remain outstanding. All told, the telecom has bought back 775 million shares – representing 13 percent of its outstanding stock – since 2012.
"The board's authorization reaffirms our confidence in the strength of the business and our commitment to returning value to our shareholders while investing in our networks and operations," said AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson.
Telit's closes acquisition of new asset
Telit Wireless Solutions recently finalized its acquisition of NXP Semiconductors' Automotive Telematics On-board unit Platform. The M2M module and service provider expects the new investment to help it position itself within the robust automotive segment of the industry. ATOP will facilitate Telit's push into the automotive M2M arena by enticing vehicle manufacturers with its eCall functionality. The product has distinguished itself by offering a compact frame with an affordable price tag, potentially enabling automakers to reduce the complexity and costs associated with the design process.
Upon announcing the acquisition of the ATOP technology, Telit simultaneously launched a new entity, Telit Automotive Solutions, to shift focus to the automotive original equipment manufacturer market.
"The acquisition of ATOP is the catalyst for building a dedicated automotive business unit to better address automotive opportunities and execute our strategy to become the market leader in this segment," stated Telit CEO Oozi Cats. "The ATOP team is talented and enthusiastic to join Telit. Their expertise will be leveraged by positioning their top managers in significant roles within the new Telit automotive organization."
ByteSphere acquired by EXFO
EXFO, provider of next-generation testing services and end-to-end solutions for mobile or fixed networks, recently completed its acquisition of assets held by software company ByteSphere. The addition of the organization's global IT management and network monitoring resources will enable EXFO to improve its own network performance management offerings. In particular, as previously noted by RCR Wireless, the acquired assets will complement EXFO's BrixWorx service assurance series. Some of the most noteworthy features of ByteSphere's technology include fault management and network element polling. By adding ByteSphere's resources with its existing service assurance assets, EXFO will be able to offer clients a variety of insightful metrics regarding network performance. This information could then be used to improve the quality of these network environments and provide greater value to the end user.
"EXFO is thrilled with the acquisition of ByteSphere's assets as it is very synergistic with our total solutions offering in service assurance and network performance management, especially in critical areas like small cells, wireless backhaul and metro Ethernet," stated EXFO CEO Germain Lamonde.
