ADVA has acquired a Finnish firm with small form factor network synchronization technology for the small cell market, but a bigger deal could be on the horizon.

ADVA on Monday announced that its Oscillioquartz network synchronization unit acquired Time4 Systems, a private company whose small form factor clock technology ADVA Optical Networking says is designed for small cell deployments and other space-sensitive network environments. (See ADVA Acquires Time4 Systems.)

ADVA CEO Brian Protiva tells Light Reading that the German company is eyeing other potential acquisitions related to technology in other areas of its business, including WDM and Carrier Ethernet. One such deal could be small -- a "tuck in" opportunity, as Protiva describes it -- and happen in the shorter term, involving a target ADVA already has "very much in mind," he says. But Protiva adds that ADVA also is considering a "larger deal, more in the mid-term" that could give it access to a new group of customers.

"Strategically, we are looking at the bigger picture," Protiva says. "Do we need to scale revenue at a faster pace than our organic growth?"

ADVA's organic growth has been impressive of late, as the company has surged to record revenues on growing spending around cloud and data center infrastructure at the same time that spending by European carriers has been rebounding after a lengthy slumber. (See ADVA Q2 Revenue Meets Revised Guidance and ADVA Quarterly Revenue Up 22% YoY.)

ADVA might be looking to improve in North America, where it has gained traction with small carriers. Also, while ADVA is often mentioned by larger service providers and data center operators as being under consideration for contracts, it frequently misses the final cut.

For example, an official with large data center operator CyrusOne recently acknowledged that ADVA was one of several vendors it evaluated for data center interconnection before ultimately going with incumbent vendor BTI Systems Inc. In ADVA's second quarter of 2015 earnings report it stated that about 30% of its revenue during that quarter came from the Americas. (See CyrusOne Sticks With BTI for DCI.)

Protiva didn't offer any further details on ADVA's potential acquisitions, but it's fair to wonder if the larger deal anticipated to play out over the longer term could involve a US-based vendor that could give ADVA better access to North American customers.

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ADVA acquired Oscilloquartz, based in Switzerland, last year. In that case, it was Oscilloquartz that expressed a desire to be acquired by ADVA after ADVA was looking for a way to augment its own early developments in the network synchronization market. That acquisition came a few months after Microsemi Corp. acquired timing vendor Symmetricom, which also has addressed the growing need from small form factor clocks in small cell deployments. (See ADVA Buys Oscilloquartz SA , Symmetricom Gives Time to Small Cells and Synching Up Small-Cell Backhaul.)

— Dan O'Shea, Managing Editor, Light Reading