Now that it has closed its acquisition of Danaher's communication businesses, the service assurance vendor is looking to integrate all the various technologies, not run them separately.

Sarah Thomas, Director, Women in Comms

July 16, 2015

3 Min Read
NetScout: We Won't Be a House of Brands

NetScout has closed its $2.3 billion acquisition of Danaher's communication businesses, including Tektronix Communications, Arbor Networks and parts of the Fluke Networks, but the company says it won't be running its newly combined company as a collection of separate brands. Fully integrated products and services are on the still-developing roadmap.

"We will not be run as a house of brands, the way Danaher did it," NetScout Senior Product Manager Mike Serrano tells Light Reading. "We'll be a branded house."

NetScout Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: NTCT) closed its acquisition Tuesday and is still working out its integrated product roadmap. It was a pretty hefty purchase, including a number of companies with fairly different product offerings. (See NetScout Closes $2.3B Acquisition, NetScout to Buy Danaher's Comms Unit and NetScout Reports Fiscal Q4, Full Year.)

Serrano says that Fluke Networks and Tektronix Communications will be fully folded into the NetScout's portfolio, while TekComms' VSS Monitoring and Newfield Wireless (part of Tektronix), Arantech and Air Magnet were already integrated into the Tek portfolio and will become part of the NetScout portfolio as part of the integration work ahead. (See NetScout Preps Post-Acquisition Future.)

"This takes us out of the traditional monitoring area -- the core to the edge of the network in just IP," he explains. "With the addition of the new divisions, Arbor takes us into security; Air Magnet takes us into the RF and WiFi management space; Newfield gives us better RAN exposure and CEM tools around RAN and wireless; VSS Monitoring expands our packet monitoring capabilities; and Tektronix gives us better session trace capabilities for voice service. It really now gives us a broad portfolio from the RAN to the core, voice and video."

Want to know more about developments in service provider IT? Check out our dedicated SPIT content channel here on Light Reading.

The acquisition will also take NetScout from 1,100 employees to more than 3,000. While the two companies shared a lot of customers, Danaher's properties will help it expand into South America, Africa and the Middle East. (See Leading Lights 2015 Finalists: Outstanding Test & Measurement Vendor.)

NetScout isn't quite ready to share specific details about its technology roadmap, but Serrano says that more will be revealed in the next couple of months. (See NetScout: Service Assurance Still a Must for Virtual Realm.)

Anil Singhal, NetScout co-founder and CEO, writes in a letter to customers that the company plans to preserve the organization and leadership of the companies it acquired as separate business units except for sales and corporate functions, "which will be immediately integrated for consistency and control."

The deal took a year to close, but Singhal says it's been in the works for almost three, "since we launched our NetScout 3.0 vision to redefine and transform service assurance and cyber security through ubiquitous, traffic-based instrumentation for visibility, control and threat detection."

— Sarah Thomas, Circle me on Google+ Follow me on TwitterVisit my LinkedIn profile, Editorial Operations Director, Light Reading

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About the Author(s)

Sarah Thomas

Director, Women in Comms

Sarah Thomas's love affair with communications began in 2003 when she bought her first cellphone, a pink RAZR, which she duly "bedazzled" with the help of superglue and her dad.

She joined the editorial staff at Light Reading in 2010 and has been covering mobile technologies ever since. Sarah got her start covering telecom in 2007 at Telephony, later Connected Planet, may it rest in peace. Her non-telecom work experience includes a brief foray into public relations at Fleishman-Hillard (her cussin' upset the clients) and a hodge-podge of internships, including spells at Ingram's (Kansas City's business magazine), American Spa magazine (where she was Chief Hot-Tub Correspondent), and the tweens' quiz bible, QuizFest, in NYC.

As Editorial Operations Director, a role she took on in January 2015, Sarah is responsible for the day-to-day management of the non-news content elements on Light Reading.

Sarah received her Bachelor's in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She lives in Chicago with her 3DTV, her iPad and a drawer full of smartphone cords.

Away from the world of telecom journalism, Sarah likes to dabble in monster truck racing, becoming part of Team Bigfoot in 2009.

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