US-based Viavi to buy UK's Spirent Communications for $1.28 bln (updated)
05/03/2024 07:52
(Adds details about deal)
March 5 (Reuters) - U.S.-based communications equipment
firm Viavi Solutions Inc VIAV.O has agreed to buy British
telecommunications testing firm Spirent Communications SPT.L
for about 1.01 billion pounds ($1.28 billion), the firms said on
Tuesday.
Spirent shareholders will get 175 pence per share and a
special dividend of 2.5 pence per Spirent share in lieu of any
final dividend for the year ended Dec. 31, 2023.
The per-share deal value is at a premium of about 61.4% to
Spirent's closing price of 108.4 pence on March 4.
The deal is expected to help Viavi Solutions boost its
expertise in artificial intelligence and machine learning,
security, cloud-native architecture and automation.
As part of the deal, private equity firm Silver Lake
will make a long-term investment of $400 million in Viavi
Solutions, the companies added.
($1 = 0.7886 pounds)
(Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong and Chandini Monnappa in
Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Eileen Soreng)
((Yadarisa.Shabong@thomsonreuters.com; +91 9742735150;))