Multinational tech provider Thales is shelling out up to $215 million to acquire US-based big data analytics vendor Guavus in a bid to help its customers in the aerospace, transport, defense and security markets take advantage of the vast amounts of data they ingest.

Guavus Inc. , founded in 2006, has made a name for itself in big data analytics in the communications service provider space, which it says it will continue to serve as a standalone unit of Thales. It already counts as customers the five largest North American mobile operators, four of the top five global Internet backbone and seven of the top eight North American cable operators. (See Guavus Intros Pipeline 5.0, Big Data for Cable, CSPs Gain Appetite for Big Data Analytics, Finds Heavy Reading and Guavus Brings Analytics to RDK.)

Expanding into Thales' core areas of business will be a natural extension for the company as it has tailored its platform for the Internet of Things in areas like transportation in recent years. It analyzes around 5,000 terabytes of data a day, a skill that would come in handy for cybersecurity firms and aircraft makers. (See CEO Chat With Anukool Lakhina, Guavus and Guavus Takes Analytics on the Road.)

For more on IoT action, visit the dedicated IoT content page here on Light Reading.

Thales cited predictive maintenance, cybersecurity, monitoring of critical infrastructures and network and telecom systems optimization as areas where Guavus' Machine Intelligent operational analytics platform would come into play in helping drive its customers' embrace of IoT applications. (See Forget Bitcoin, Data Is Currency of the Future.)

"Guavus' widely deployed Machine Intelligent, big data operational analytics platform transforms the quality, efficiency, scale and security with which our customers can deliver their services, making our platform a critical enabler of digital transformation," Guavus Founder and CEO Anukool Lakhina said in a release on the acquisition, which Light Reading noted as a possibility in January. (See M&A Prospects in T&M 2017.)

The cash transaction, valued at up to $215 million, is expected to close in the third quarter of 2017.

— Sarah Thomas, , Director, Women in Comms