Mavenir Systems has acquired Brocade’s virtual evolved packet core solution for an undisclosed amount. The deal includes 22 granted and pending patents, a research and development facility in Mumbai, India and the associated customer support and maintenance contracts.
Mavenir itself was acquired by Mitel more than two years ago, and rechristened as Mitel Mobility. Mitel then went on to buy Polycom for almost $2 billion, and then decided to sell Mitel Mobility to a company called Xura. Xura combined its operations with those of Mitel Mobility, resurrected the Mavenir name, and rebranded the combined companies as Mavenir Systems.
Brocade also has a complex past. The company was purchased last year by Broadcom Limited, which is the name that has been used by Singapore’s Avago Technologies ever since it purchased the original Broadcom for $37 billion. After the merger was complete, the combined company announced plans to buy Brocade Communications for $5.9 billion.
When Broadcom agreed to buy Brocade, it said it would divest several parts of the business. The IP networking unit, which included Ruckus Wireless, was sold to Arris for $800 million. The data center networking business went to Extreme Networks. And now, the evolved packet core assets are going to Mavenir.
“We aim to be a key provider of next-generation network services, with a path to 5G and edge computing for our customers,” said Pardeep Kohli, president and CEO of Mavenir. Kohli was CEO of Mavenir before it spent two years as part of Mitel, and reclaimed the job when Mitel sold the company to Xura. Kohli looks forward to combining the assets of Mavenir, the former Xura, and now Brocade’s virtual EVP.
“As the industry transitions towards LTE and 5G, there is a critical and growing requirement for a new, more distributed network architecture and that includes a flexible, microservices-based EPC that allows for the independent scaling of control, data and users in response to different workloads,” Kohli said in a statement. “It provides inherent capability for network slicing.”
