Despite its headquarters being closed for three weeks due to northern California wildfires, Keysight delivered a fourth quarter that its CEO called “outstanding,” and the company reported record orders of more than $1 billion.
“While our headquarters was closed for over three weeks due to the northern California wildfires, we are very pleased with our fourth quarter performance and execution, resulting in a strong close to a transformative year for Keysight,” said President and CEO Ron Nersesian. “Our success this year demonstrates the power of our strategic focus and our strong alignment with our customers, while providing a solid foundation to drive growth and earnings in 2018 and beyond.”
In terms of segment breakdown, Keysight’s electronic industrial solutions group had revenues of $836 million for the year, up from $776 million; its newly acquired Ixia solutions group reported revenues of $256 million; and Keysight’s services solutions group had $419 million in revenue, up from $402 million during the previous fiscal year.
Keysight reported that quarterly revenues were up 17% compared to the same quarter last year, to $878 million. Net loss for the quarter was $38 million, compared to being $92 million in the black during the same time last year. For the year, Keysight recorded $102 million in profit, compared to $335 million in its fiscal 2016. Revenues for the full fiscal year were up 9% year-over-year to $3.2 billion.
In other test news:
–Viavi Solutions unveiled a new offering that takes information directly from field instruments and automatically delivers it in real-time into planning, provisioning and optimization applications. The new Nitro platform’s first solution is Nitro vNet Fusion, which offers “virtual test, service activation and performance monitoring,” Viavi said.
Viavi added that it developed the new integrated test, analytics and optimization platform based on Tier 1 service provider needs as well as those of enterprises and network equipment manufacturers, and called Nitro “the first intelligence platform that connects real-time testing and activation data from network instruments with software-based planning, provisioning, assurance and optimization probes and applications, creating a unique end-to-end view of the network lifecycle.” Viavi plans four “solutions sets” based on Nitro: vSet for virtual service activation and performance; Nitro Enterprise for enterprise and cloud network performance; Nitro Mobile for “mobile intelligence, assurance and optimization” and Nitro TechFlow for automating technician’s work processes.
–Anritsu and Huawei demonstrated LTE-Advanced Pro smartphone downlink speeds of 1.2 Gbps, leveraging features including three component-carrier carrier aggregation, 4×4 multiple-input-multiple-output and 256 QAM modulation. The testing utilized Anritsu’s Signalling Tester MD8430A and its Rapid Test Designer.
–PCTel has added narrowband internet of things testing capability to its IBflex scanning receivers.
–Accedian has integrated its virtualized Skylight platform for network performance assurance into Lanner Electonics’ x86 network platform, to enable visibility into virtualized networks that utilize Lanner’s virtual and universal customer premise equipment.
“SkyLight has already been adopted by more than a dozen tier one mobile network operators who need our solution to assure their virtualized networks,” said Accedian CEO Patrick Ostiguy. “Enterprise services are also undergoing radical virtualization and the service providers that support them need performance assurance solutions to match. Our partnership with Lanner will ensure that its many customers that are already building virtualized services, or those that are planning to do so, will have immediate access to the world’s first fully-virtualized network performance assurance solution.”
-Wi-Fi network design company Ekahau boosted its distribution reach in Canada through a mew agreement with Ingram Micro. Ekahau’s full portfolio, including its new all-in-one Sidekick device for Wi-Fi network design, will now be offered by Ingram Micro in Canada.
-Software-defined spectrum analysis company ThinkRF continues to expand, opening a European headquarters. The new office is located outside London, England.
