DZS to buy customer experience software portfolio from ASSIA
DZS (Nasdaq: DZSI) says it will enhance its broadband service-support software portfolio via the acquisition of quality-of-experience software platforms and other core assets from Adaptive Spectrum and Signal Alignment, Inc. (ASSIA). The all-cash agreement, the price tag of which was not disclosed, is scheduled to close during the current quarter.
Products covered under the acquisition include:
- the CloudCheck WiFi experience management platform
- the Expresse access-network optimization tool portfolio
- the EQUIPE work-from-home quality-of-experience resource management tool
- the Commande broadband and WiFi analysis, recommendation, and optimization engine.
DZS will integrate the software assets into its DZS Xperience suite and DZS Cloud offerings; CloudCheck will become the DZS consumer-management platform for WiFi. ASSIA employees, including cloud and AI software engineers, architects, and what DZS termed “business leaders” will transfer to DZI. DZS also will receive customer contracts as well as certain patents and a license for others that ASSIA owns. ASSIA says it owns more than 500 patents.
“With over 125 million broadband and WiFi connections under contract, CloudCheck and Expresse will elevate the DZS Cloud platform and expand our customer base to include marquee brands such as Bouygues Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, Liberty Latin America, Lumen, TalkTalk Group, Telefonica, TELUS, and approximately 60 other notable service providers around the world,” said Charlie Vogt, president and CEO of DZS. “The expansion of the DZS Xperience software suite with CloudCheck and Expresse, combined with our existing DZS Cloud service orchestration and network automation offerings that are the basis of the new DZS Xtreme software suite, distinguish DZS Cloud as one of the industry’s most comprehensive service and consumer-experience-management software platforms with a unique value proposition for multi-vendor service provider network environments.”
A foundation of DSL support tools
ASSIA was founded by CEO and Chairman Dr. John Cioffi, an expert in DSL technology and professor emeritus of electrical engineering at Stanford University. Its first version of Expresse focused on DSL networks (see, for example, “ASSIA strengthens VDSL vectoring play with DSL Expresse 3.3”) before being expanded to include optical networks (see “ASSIA offers Optical Network Expresse for PON infrastructure”). Cioffi also has visions of expanding DSL’s capabilities to terabit scale (see “ASSIA exec touts terabit-speed DSL”). He and a few employees will remain with ASSIA, according to a DZS spokesperson. The company is backed by strategic investors such as AT&T, SFR Development, Sandalwood Partners, Sofinnova Ventures, Stanford University, Swisscom Ventures, Telefónica, T-Ventures, and ValueGate.
“The CloudCheck and Expresse addition to the DZS convergent and transformational portfolio of broadband-connectivity, mobile, optical-edge, and network orchestration solutions will create an enviable end-to-end portfolio of access networking, in-home WiFi, and cloud-native software solutions. These will further enhance connectivity, proliferate adaptive network-performance optimization, and increase the levels of scalable support provided to ASSIA’s existing customers…as well for the many other customers of DZS,” Cioffi commented. “The DZS global deployed base of over 20 million ONTs, access points, gateways, and subscriber devices will readily incorporate Expresse and CloudCheck. I am proud of ASSIA’s exceptionally talented employees for the many technological advancements and milestones achieved over the years and look to assist those who will follow their next chapter of success at DZS.”
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Stephen Hardy | Editorial Director and Associate Publisher, Lightwave
Stephen Hardy is editorial director and associate publisher of Lightwave and Broadband Technology Report, part of the Lighting & Technology Group at Endeavor Business Media. Stephen is responsible for establishing and executing editorial strategy across the both brands’ websites, email newsletters, events, and other information products. He has covered the fiber-optics space for more than 20 years, and communications and technology for more than 35 years. During his tenure, Lightwave has received awards from Folio: and the American Society of Business Press Editors (ASBPE) for editorial excellence. Prior to joining Lightwave in 1997, Stephen worked for Telecommunications magazine and the Journal of Electronic Defense.
Stephen has moderated panels at numerous events, including the Optica Executive Forum, ECOC, and SCTE Cable-Tec Expo. He also is program director for the Lightwave Innovation Reviews and the Diamond Technology Reviews.
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