Consolidation continues to shape the test and measurement industry. Over the past three years, a number of major telecom test and measurement companies have acquired, sold, spun off or otherwise fundamentally changed their business operations.
Since the last iteration of this list, for example, Keysight Technologies purchased Anite; JDSU split into two companies; and Anritsu acquired Azimuth Systems. Elektrobit split into two companies and sold off its automotive business and brand name, so its test unit now operates as a much smaller company named Bittium. Ascom recently divested its network testing operations to InfoVista.
A few caveats on this list: it includes only publicly traded companies for which revenue information is available, with the exception of Rohde and Schwarz (which is privately held but makes its annual revenue figure public). Revenue figures are based on the most recent full-year results that are available, which at this point in the year means that some figures are from 2015. The one exception to that is Fortive, which was spun off from Danaher in mid-2016; the company has only publicly reported two quarters of operation, but those figures alone are large enough to put it in the No. 2 spot on our list.
Here are the top 12 telecom test and measurement companies based on revenues:
12. Viavi Solutions, heir to the networking testing business of the former JDSU, reported $906.3 million in revenues for its fiscal 2016, up 3.7% year-over-year.
11. NetScout had fiscal year 2016 revenues of $955.4 million. The company made a major purchase of testing assets from Danaher’s communications business that was completed early in 2015, and turned Netscout into a substantially larger company.
10. National Instruments has not yet reported its final numbers for 2016. Its 2015 full-year results included revenues of $1.23 billion.
9. Japanese test company Advantest reported that for its fiscal year ending in March 2016, the company brought in sales of about $1.4 billion.
8. Test company Teradyne reported 2015 revenues of about $1.64 billion. Quarterly revenues for 2016 were generally trending up a few percent from the same periods during 2015.
7. Rohde & Schwarz is a privately held company, but it does make approximate annual revenue figures available. R&S reported that for its fiscal year from July 2015 to June 2016, the company brought in a little more than 1.92 billion euros, or a little more than $2 billion.
6. Teledyne Technologies, which includes test and measurement company Teledyne LeCroy, reported full-year 2015 revenues of $2.3 billion.
5. Multinational corporation Cobham Group claims the No. 5 spot due to its acquisition of test company Aeroflex, which the company expects to be fully integrated by the end of this year, according to Cobham’s 2015 annual report. Cobham’s revenues for 2015 were about $2.5 billion, and the company said that strong revenue growth of 12% year-over-year was due in part to the Aeroflex acquisition.
4. Keysight Technologies continues to be a heavyweight in the test space. The pure-play telecom test company reported fiscal 2016 revenues of $2.9 billion.
3. Fortive, which was spun off from Danaher in the middle of last year, has not yet seen a full year of financial reporting. but has brought in about $1.6 billion in revenues during its two quarters of existence. That puts the nascent company at $3.2 billion in reported revenues. Fortive brands include Tektronix, Fluke and Keithley instruments.
1-2. This slot is actually a tie between two multinational corporations, which have test and measurement operations. Smiths Group, which includes test equipment maker Kaelus, reported revenues of nearly $3.6 billion for its fiscal year 2016. Yokogawa Electric, based in Japan, reported net sales of approximately $3.6 billion for its fiscal 2015.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include Viavi Solutions.
Image copyright: llepod / 123RF Stock Photo
