NetScout has officially closed on its $2.3 billion acquisition of Danaher’s communications business, which includes Tektronix Communications, security firm Arbor Networks and parts of Fluke Networks, broadening the company’s portfolio in network visibility and threat detection.
In addition to the completion of the transaction, NetScout also has put in place an $800 million credit line that will be used for “general working capital requirements as well as to help finance the repurchase of NetScout’s common stock,” according to the company, which recently approved a plan to repurchase 20 million shares of common stock. NetScout’s common stock closed yesterday at $36.89 per share.
The transaction represents a significant shift in size for NetScout, which has made similar leaps in the past through acquisitions. The company is gaining more than 2,000 new employees and more than tripling its size. Anil Singhal, president and CEO of NetScout, said in a statement that “with a broader range of market-leading capabilities and technologies, as well as more extensive, global go-to-market and distribution resources, NetScout will be better positioned to capitalize on the many exciting opportunities we see to further expand our customer relationships around the world.”
Additionally, in an open letter to customers posted today, Singhal said: “We have been working on this acquisition for over a year, but, in truth, it has been in the making for almost three years since we launched our NetScout 3.0 vision to redefine and transform service assurance and cybersecurity through ubiquitous, traffic-based instrumentation for visibility, control and threat detection.”
In the company’s words, the purchase “accelerates NetScout’s strategic progress by enabling the company to offer a broader range of innovative service assurance and cybersecurity solutions. These solutions provide service providers, enterprises and public sector agencies with the intelligence and analytics required to help them maximize the benefits of powerful technology advances such as IP convergence, virtualization, cloud computing, mobility, bring your own device (BYOD) and the evolving Internet.”
James Lico, the EVP who was responsible for the test and measurement segment at Danaher and its Gilbarco Veeder-Root fuel dispenser business, has been appointed as an independent director on NetScout’s board of directors as part of the transaction.
