California-based Maury Microwave, which focuses on test, measurement, emulation and RF calibration, has agreed to buy Wireless Telecom Group (WTT) and its Boonton, Holzworth and Noisecom test and measurement brands.
WTT had been exploring “strategic alternatives” and sold off its RF components and radio, software and baseband businesses in 2022, leaving it with just its test and measurement operations. Maury Microwave is a private-equity-backed company that has support from Artemis Capital Partners. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
In its quarterly earnings release earlier this month, WTT reported lower revenues and a widening net loss, as well as struggles with supply chain issues and delays. The company brought in revenue of $5.2 million in the first quarter, down from $6.1 million in the same period last year, as well as a net loss of $941,000, compared to a loss of $796,000 in the first quarter of 2022. WTT said it had a backlog of $6.7 million, up 56% from the end of last year’s first quarter. CEO Tim Whelan said that it was seeing nearly $1 million in first-quarter shipments delayed into the second quarter due to “supply chain delays and longer than expected export license issuances,” but he added that the company expected to see “meaningful sequential increases in revenue and bookings in our second quarter.”
WTT was founded in 1985; the company will continue to operate from its New Jersey headquarters as a division of Maury, the new parent company said, and WTT will continue to be led by General Manager Daniel Monopoli and his senior leadership team.
“This proposed transaction represents a significant step forward in our strategic plan,” said Bill Pezza, executive chairman of the board at Maury Microwave. “The combination of Maury and WTT, including its prominent test and measurement divisions Boonton, Holzworth, and Noisecom, will enable us to provide even more comprehensive solutions and superior service to our customers. We are excited to welcome the talented team from WTT to the Maury organization and look forward to a future of innovative growth together.”
In other test news:
–Keysight Technologies has unveiled a new, mid-range vector network analyzer. The company said that its Keysight E5081A ENA-X can speed up the characterization of 5G component designs by up to 50%.
–PCTel has added 4G and 5G New Radio network monitoring capabilities to its SeeHawk spectrum monitoring and uplink testing solution, which was originally launched last summer for P25 public safety networks. Now, the company say, SeeHawk can be used to monitor downlink signals both LTE and 5G NR base stations. “This solution helps users support mission-critical public safety and private broadband network performance as well as regulatory and enforcement activities such as international spectrum coordination and rogue base station detection,” the company said.
–Rohde & Schwarz said that two of its vector signal generators, the R&S SMW200A and R&S SMM100A, and two of its signal and spectrum analyzers, the FSW and FPS, have been approved by Qualcomm for testing of Qualcomm’s O-RAN-compliant QRU100 5G RAN platform in the sub-6 GHz frequency range.
The test company also plans to host an RF design challenge as part of its live demos at the upcoming International Microwave Symposium in San Diego in June.
-Taiwan’s TMYTEK is collaborating with NI on a live demonstration of a new millimeter wave coverage solution at the Wireless Japan 2023 conference, leveraging multiple reflectors to redistribute mmWave signals in what it says is an application of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS) technology for 5G. (To read more about RIS, check out this story.)
“As we embark on the 5G era, millimeter-wave deployment poses unique challenges that demand innovative solutions,” said Su-Wei Chang, founder and president of TMYTEK. “Our XRifle Reflector and 5G mmW-Coverage solution provide a transformative answer to these challenges, enabling optimized mmWave deployment and connectivity in diverse settings.”
