NetScout Pockets Accanto's Probes

NetScout Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: NTCT) is bolstering its nGenius Service Assurance network probe business with the acquisition of certain assets from Service Provider Information Technology (SPIT) specialist Accanto Systems .

NetScout has bought a number of products (but not customer relationships) from Accanto's intelligent Customer Service Assurance (iCSA) unit, including its Pantera hardware probes. It is also taking on a number of Accanto engineers who are based in Modena, Italy, where NetScout will now set up a development center. Financial details weren't disclosed.

The Accanto assets will provide additional capabilities to NetScout's probe portfolio, including the ability to monitor legacy SS7 and SIGTRAN traffic, and enhance its ability to monitor VoIP and 4G voice (VoLTE) performance. NetScout is already one of the major players in the telecom network probe market, along with the likes of Tektronix Communications and JDSU (Nasdaq: JDSU; Toronto: JDU). Research house Analysys Mason valued the market at just over US$1 billion in 2011.

News of the asset acquisition was announced as NetScout reported better than expected results for its fiscal first quarter -- net income of $5 million on revenues of $76.4 million. That news boosted the company's shares by 12 percent to $21.93.

Accanto, meanwhile, still very much exists as an independent, though slightly smaller, SPIT vendor, despite some financial news agencies reporting that the whole company had been sold.

The Helsinki, Finland-based company becomes a reseller of NetScout's full probe portfolio and will now focus on its remaining OSS tools, the recently launched iD Intelligent Datafeed tool, its Traffic Analysis and Monitoring System (TAMS) and X-Ray applications-focused business intelligence software.

Together, the latter two products form Accanto's Customer Experience Management (CEM) solution.

Accanto, which was spun out of Sunrise Telecom Inc. (Nasdaq: SRTI) in early 2009, claims to have about 180 customers in 60 countries. (See Mobily Deploys Accanto OSS, Accanto Wins OSS Deal in Austria and Accanto Launches at MWC.)

— Ray Le Maistre, International Managing Editor, Light Reading