Spirent

Spirent Communications plc
Public limited company
Traded as LSE: SPT, OTC Pink: SPMYY
Industry Telecommunications
Founded 1936
Headquarters Crawley, West Sussex, United Kingdom (Corporate)
Sunnyvale, California, United States (Operational)
Key people
 Alex Walker (Chairman of the board)
Eric Hutchinson (CEO)
Rachel Whiting (CFO)
Products Network diagnostics
Revenue £457.2 million (2014)[1]
£23.7 million (2014)[1]
Profit £20.6 million (2014)[1]
Number of employees
 1,500 (2012)[2]
Website www.spirent.com

Spirent Communications plc is a multinational telecommunications testing company headquartered in Crawley, West Sussex, in the United Kingdom. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange.

History

The company was founded by Jack Bowthorpe in 1936 as Goodliffe Electric Supplies. In 1949 it changed its name to Bowthorpe. It acquired Optima Electronics in 1987 and disposed of its defence businesses in 1990. The company's electronics business grew rapidly during the dot-com boom of the 1990s, with the 1997 purchase of businesses such as Adtech, a digital test equipment concern based in Hawaii,[3] and the company was a member of the FTSE 100 index from time to time. It disposed of its automotive industry businesses in 1999, the same year that it bought Netcom Systems, a US telecoms testing business which makes network equipment testers,[4] and DLS, a Canadian telecoms testing business.[5] In 2000 it also bought Hekimian, a major Operations Support Systems business,[6] Zarak Systems, another communications software business[7] and Net-Hopper, an access systems specialist.[8]

In 2000 it changed its name to Spirent. The name is derived from the words "inspired innovation."

It acquired Caw Networks, a Santa Clara company which makes network performance testing appliances including Avalanche, in 2002,[9] Scientific Software Engineering, a United States-based developer of software including Landslide for testing the performance and functionality of wireless network infrastructure, in 2006,[10] Imperfect Networks, a IDS/IPS testing company, in 2006,[11] and Fanfare Software, a United States-based developer of the iTest automation software, in 2011.[12]

It went on to buy Mu Dynamics, a Sunnyvale company which makes cloud and app testing products such as Blitz,[13] and Metrico Wireless, the global leader in mobile device performance analytics for wireless service providers, OEMs and corporate enterprises based in Frederick, Maryland, in 2012.[14]

In July 2014, Spirent acquired Radvision's Technology Business Unit from Avaya. Radvision a company based in Tel Aviv, Israel, offers development and test suites for voice and Vvideo over IP communications.[15]

Operations

Spirent Communications PLC is a communications and network testing company. Spirent mainly consists of the former Consultronics (later DLS Testworks) (of Ottawa, Ontario), Netcom Systems (of Chatsworth, California and later Calabasas, California), Adtech (of Honolulu, Hawaii), Zarak Systems (of Sunnyvale, California), Caw Networks (of San Jose, California), Hekimian (of Rockville, Maryland), Telecom Analysis Systems (of Eatontown, New Jersey) in 1995, Global Simulation Systems (of Paignton, Devon) in 1997, DLS (of Ottawa, Ontario) in 1998 and a number of other small network test equipment providers that it has acquired such as Imperfect Networks (of Burlington, Massachusetts).

References

External links