Enterprise software company Citrix has signed an agreement to buy Bytemobile, a provider of data and video optimization solutions for mobile network operators.
Citrix says the purchase gives it a strategic foothold in the core infrastructure of more than 130 mobile operators in 60 countries around the world, significantly extending the company's market reach and enhancing its broader strategy of powering mobile work styles and cloud services.
By joining forces, Citrix and Bytemobile say they'll be able to offer wireless operators combined solutions that deliver a high-quality user experience to subscribers, while helping carriers manage the exponential growth of mobile network traffic with the best performance, visibility and efficiency. The acquisition builds on a strategic partnership announced earlier this year that combined the Bytemobile Smart Capacity technology with the Citrix NetScaler line of cloud networking solutions.
Bytemobile customers today serve more than 2 billion subscribers and process more than 20 petabytes of data traffic through customer networks daily. The company has 300 employees, including product, sales and services teams around the world.
"The cloud and mobile revolutions are rapidly converging, and mobile operators are at the heart of this convergence," said Klaus Oestermann, group vice president and general manager of cloud networking at Citrix. "With the integration of Bytemobile technology, products and intellectual capital, Citrix will be uniquely positioned to be a leader in the global mobile data and video infrastructure market in the LTE era."
The acquisition is winning support from at least one analyst.
“Bringing application delivery and network optimization solutions together under the same roof is a growing trend for service providers struggling to drive profits from mobile data service plans," said Yankee Group research VP Brian Partridge. "Today’s mobile users are creating overwhelming traffic tonnage in the absence of corresponding revenue growth — and of course the main culprit of that growth are users watching video content on their mobiles. As the communications business rapidly evolves from voice- to data-centric business models, operators must think differently about designing network architectures and the intelligence required on top. Solutions that help deliver consistent quality of experience, tools for data monetization and can support the scale required to meet consumers’ insatiable demand for video services will be in high demand for years to come. We expect significant M&A activity in these segments over the next 12 months as solution vendors ramp up for this demand."
The deal is expected to close during the third quarter. Financial terms were not disclosed.
