JDS Uniphase Corp. agreed to buy Network Instruments, a maker of network management products based in Minnesota, for $200 million.
JDSU, based in Milpitas, expects the deal to close in the next 45 days, the company said in a statement. The acquisition should add to the company’s fourth-quarter earnings, the company said. JDSU also said the Network Instruments buy will probably bolster profit margins, as it will grow the high-margin networking software element of JDSU’s business. The company said it thinks the purchase will raise the addressable market size for those products by more than $1 billion.
That’s a good thing for JDSU, because those areas also happen to be some of the fastest-growing markets in the networking business. Network management software has been growing by about 13 percent a year, compared with growth of about 5 to 7 percent for networking hardware. In 2012, JDSU posted revenue of about $1.7 billion.
Don’t expect a major shift in headcount in the Silicon Valley, however — Network Instruments only has about 125 employees, compared with about 5,000 for JDSU.
Companies: JDSU