Amphenol wants to bolster its fiber optic interconnect position and was impressed by CommScope’s team after buying its DAS unit
Amphenol is buying CommScope’s Connectivity and Cable Solutions (CCS) business for $10.5 billion, boosting its position in data center and intelligent building interconnection capabilities, as well as broadband networks.
If an Amphenol-CommScope deal sounds familiar, that’s because this is the second CommScope business that Amphenol has pursued in the past year.
Amphenol struck a deal to buy CommScope’s Andrew connectivity business in July of last year for about $2.1 billion, a move which included CommScope’s Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) business unit and its Outdoor Wireless Networks (OWN) unit. The DAS unit focuses on indoor cellular infrastructure for campuses, venues and enterprises, and the OWN unit was part of CommScope’s Networking, Intelligent Cellular & Security Solutions (NICS) unit. That business has been consolidated by Amphenol under the revived Andrew brand.
Amphenol President and CEO R. Adam Norwitt said that the Andrew transaction helped Amphenol get more familiar with the rest of the company and the team. Amphenol liked what it saw.
“Simply put, Andrew has given us the opportunity to become deeply acquainted with the outstanding technology and deep bench of talent within CommScope,” said Norwitt on a call with analysts Monday morning, after the transaction was announced. He elaborated: “We learned about how talented some of the folks are with the Andrew acquisition, and then getting to know the CCS team in the recent months has given us even more confidence that this is a team of people who, as part of Amphenol, can really drive outstanding performance.”
CommScope’s CCS business serves three markets: physical bits and bobs that support fiber optic interconnections for data centers; fiber optic and interconnect solutions for the broadband network market; and interconnect tools for next-generation factories and smart commercial buildings, both for new builds and upgrades. The combined unit is expected to generate about $3.6 billion in sales this year. About 40% of CCS sales are in the data center segment, which is seeing “very robust growth” amid the AI infrastructure boom, Norwitt pointed out. About 35% of sales are in the broadband space, with another 25% of sales are in the industrial interconnect segment.
Amphenol expects the transaction to close in the first half of 2026, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals. The CCS unit has more than 15,000 employees.
Norwitt emphasized the CCS business as a “premier and iconic business” with a broad portfolio — including intellectual property — that will be highly complementary to Amphenol’s offerings in the data center and networks segments, and tap an expanded market in industrial interconnect.
“The fundamental thing that excites us is their strength in fiber optics,” said Norwitt. He said that while Amphenol has had offerings that are used in the fiber optics market, “this is a real shift for us in terms of competency and capabilities.”
“Having everything from the cable to the interconnect, the connectors, cable assemblies, complex cable assemblies, fiber management systems and the like … has positioned [CCS] to take advantage of what’s happening in data centers in particular, but also in communication networks,” Norwitt said on the call with analysts. “When we think and we fast-forward to once we bring this company into Amphenol, we’ll be able to go to customers who are outfitting their next-generation data centers, whether those be for AI or in general, accelerated computing, and be able to offer them a total solution.” That runs the gamut from high-speed copper interconnects, to fiber optic interconnect and to existing Amphenol solutions in utility interconnects as well, he noted.
Amphenol has been on the hunt for more acquisitions
Amphenol recently reported record sales for the second quarter of the year, seeing an increase of 57% year-on-year to $5.7 billion for the quarter.
While most of that — 41% — came from organic growth, the company has also been on an acquisition spree over the last several years and continues to maintain an active acquisition program as part of its strategy.
Amphenol has business units that include the PCTel antenna and test equipment company, plus cellular DAS and outdoor network assets that were formerly part of CommScope. Most recently, it closed in May on the $120 million purchase of radio frequency component designer and manufacturer Narda-MITEQ, which produces active RF interconnect components for the defense market.
