Acquisition activity in the test and measurement space is already off to a brisk start in 2017, with National Technical Systems and Bureau Veritas both announcing purchases.
NTS bought two Canadian testing companies: Fiarex of Chambly, Quebec, and CEM of Boucherville, Quebec. CEM tests for electromagnetic compatibility and also does interference testing (EMC and EMI). Fairex, meanwhile, focuses on dynamic and environmental testing, according to NTS, which noted in a statement that “both companies serve a number of market leading customers in the aerospace, defense, automotive, rail, consumer and other industries.” Terms of the acquisitions were not disclosed.
NTS said CEM’s Boucherville lab “provides emissions and immunity testing to FCC, EN, IEC and RTCA-DO160 standards.” Both testing facilities are said to be ISO-accredited.
French testing company Bureau Veritas recently said it was buying certification testing company SIEMIC, which is headquartered in Milpitas, California, but also has seven testing facilities in China and South Korea, and branch offices in Taiwan. The company, started in 2003, has almost 100 employees and generated $10 million in revenues last year, Bureau Veritas estimated. It did not disclose financial terms of the acquisition.
Bureau Veritas is the parent company of 7Layers, which it acquired in 2013. Burean Veritas CEO Didier Michaud-Daniel said in a statement that the purchase of SIEMIC “[enables] Bureau Veritas to gain a strategic footprint in Silicon Valley by complementing our 7Layers U.S. laboratories” and “[enhances] our platform for autonomous and connected car services.”
The purchases by NTS and Bureau Veritas follow on Rohde & Schwarz’s news earlier this month that it is boosting its cybersecurity offerings with the acquisition of French application security company DenyAll.
For a look back at M&A activity in the test space during 2016, check out RCR Wireless News’ retrospective here.
In other test news:
–EXFO has incorporated Ookla’s Speedtest into its MaxTester 635G broadband test device for testing in the residential broadband market. The new features included Ookla’s throughput testing and analysis software being directly integrated into the MaxTester for performance assurance. The MaxTester 635G can be used in deployment of G.fast/digital subscriber line or Ethernet circuit deployment and can verify subscriber data rates up to one gigabit per second, according to EXFO.
EXFO also announced a new feature for optical time-domain reflectometers to test many short fiber links (as in a data center environment or enterprise local or wide area networks) quickly – five times faster than other offerings, according to the company. The new Fast Short Link feature for EXFO’s IOLM software in its line of OTDRs.
–Anite released a new version of its Nemo Cloud platform with real-time, remote access to data from network testing projects. The new dashboard and reporting features are said to enable real-time coordination of multiple projects and use a live data stream based on automated field testing processes that have alerts in place to give engineers a heads-up on issues, with “no manual work needed to gather and send the data,” according to Anite. The new solution will be on display at the upcoming Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, Spain.
“Cloud-based monitoring and analytics tools have become essential for operators and network equipment providers as they look to drive down costs and increase productivity. They need access to real-time information to better manage and implement measurement projects,” said Mikko Hyvärinen, director at Anite’s Network Testing Business, in a statement. “It’s now possible to manage multiple projects simultaneously using a state of the art dashboard and graphical interface that accesses live data feeds, to gain visibility of the performance of a network in real time. Issues can be addressed as soon as they are identified without having to wait until the data has been processed. Nemo Cloud can be accessed remotely, allowing engineers to view results from any given location, allowing teams to be more flexible and responsive, which in turn will streamline processes and reduce operating costs.”
–Fluke Networks says it now has the first field tester certified for testing Category 8 cabling. The DSW-8000 CableAnalyzer has had its ANSI/TIA measurement accuracy for Level 2G requirements verified by Intertek. The new tool can be used to support 25 and 40 gigabit Ethernet networks.
–Xitron launched a four-channel power analyzer that it described as “three power analyzers in a single chassis with a single user interface,” for power testing in aerospace, product compliance, battery research and production and power supply testing.
–Tektronix has new automated testing options for 100G electrical test for its DSA8300 sampling oscilloscopes, as well as what it says is the industry’s first comprehensive receiver test offering for the new MIPI D-PHY v.2.0 specification for smartphones and connected vehicles; it also includes full support for the C-PHY v1.1 receiver test specification, the company noted.
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