Spirent provides trading update, says that work continues toward its acquisition by Keysight Technologies
Spirent Communications finished out 2024 with a “strong uptick of order growth” compared to the same time in 2023, the company said in a trading update.
While Spirent said that market conditions are still challenging, it added that it is seeing “early signs of market recovery,” with order growth in the second half of 2024 at 5%, which mitigated a weak first half of the year. Full-year orders, accordingly, reached “comparable” levels to 2023, the company added.
Revenues for the full year were still down year-on-year, however, from $474 million in 2023 to about $460 million for 2024. (Spirent will report finalized numbers for its full year in early March.)
In terms of regional results, Spirent reported that it saw “good order growth” in North America and in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and also noted that it made “good progress in customer diversification.” However, the company had order declines in China. The company plans to increase its focus on growing its customer base in Japan and India in the coming year.
Spirent said that its customers “[continued] to progress their 5G related roll out [programs] with a focus on targeted network expansions and improved quality and coverage.”
Spirent Communications is in the process of being acquired by Keysight Technologies, with the transaction expected to close before the end of April 2025. Keysight offered about $1.5 billion for Spirent, outbidding fellow T&M company Viavi Solutions.
Spirent said that as far as the acquisition progress, both it and Keysight are “continuing to actively engage and work constructively with the relevant regulatory authorities in order to satisfy the regulatory conditions.”
In a previous update from Keysight on the progress of the Spirent acquisition, Keysight said that it would divest itself of Spirent’s high-speed Ethernet and network security business. Keysight has already begun a competitive auction process to seek a new owner of that business, with that divestment to be completed at the same time that the Spirent acquisition closes.
“The results in 2024 speak to the dedication of the whole global Spirent team who have yet again demonstrated their commitment and operational resilience in the face of both a challenging market environment while also working closely with Keysight to conclude their acquisition of the Group,” said Spirent Communications CEO Eric Updyke in a statement on Spirent’s second-half 2024 performance.
He added: “Momentum picked up in the latter part of the financial year. Good progress was made in customer diversification and the recent launch of new products has started to achieve traction. In particular, our AI solutions for high-speed Ethernet are already delivering growth, and we secured more logos for assurance products from the Financial Services sector.”
In a previous update in November 2024, the company had said that its Q3 2024 order intake had “gathered momentum,” with specific call-outs for wins in lifecycle service assurance and high-speed internet testing. Spirent also said that after it introduced data center AI testing, it saw “immediate wins” from data center customers.
Overall, the company said: “We are well positioned to deliver strategic and operational progress, with growth opportunities emerging across our end customer markets whilst we continue to invest in our leading technology solutions across our portfolio. This will position us well in our key markets as they continue to recover.”
