Mediatek halts shipments to ZTE

Following an order from Taiwan's Bureau of Foreign Trade, Mediatek has suspended shipment of its chips and components to ZTE, according to Nikkei Asian Review.

Mediatek is the second largest global supplier of systems-on-chip (SoC) solutions for mobile devices. It also supplies a range of connectivity chips for home networking and broadband CPE, along with a new line of optical components.

https://s.nikkei.com/2HFl4q4

Read More

Vertical Systems Group: 2017 U.S. Fiber Lit Buildings LEADERBOARD

Vertical Systems Group published the following 2017 U.S. Fiber Lit Buildings LEADERBOARD (in rank order by number of fiber lit buildings): AT&T, Verizon, Spectrum Enterprise, CenturyLink, Comcast, Cox, Crown Castle Fiber, Zayo, Frontier and Altice USA. These ten retail and wholesale fiber providers each qualified for this benchmark with 10,000 or more on-net U.S. fiber lit commercial buildings as of year-end 2017.

Twelve companies qualified for the 2017 Fiber Lit Buildings Challenge Tier as follows (in alphabetical order): Cincinnati Bell, Cleareon, Cogent, Consolidated Communications, FiberLight, FirstLight, IFN, Logix Fiber Networks, Lumos Networks, Unite Private Networks, Uniti Fiber and Windstream. These fiber providers each qualified for the 2017 Challenge Tier with between 2,000 and 9,999 U.S. fiber lit commercial buildings.

“With fiber footprint expansion in the strategic plans of every major network service provider, we’re seeing a significant ramp up in new lit building deployments,” said Rosemary Cochran, principal of Vertical Systems Group. “Merger, acquisition and re-branding activity across the fiber provider landscape is so intense that it takes a scorecard to keep track. Nearly every one of this year’s Fiber LEADERBOARD and Challenge Tier companies has been impacted by one or more fiber-related transactions in the past year.”

2017 Fiber Lit Buildings Research Scorecard
Major transactions for 2017 Fiber Lit Buildings LEADERBOARD companies:

• Verizon (#2) acquired XO (2016 Challenge Tier)
• CenturyLink (#4) merged with Level 3 (#6 on 2016 LEADERBOARD)
• Crown Castle Fiber enters at #7 with the acquisition of Lightower (#8 on 2016 LEADERBOARD) and operations consolidation that included 2016 Challenge Tier companies, Sunesys and FiberNet Direct
• Zayo (#8) advances from #9 in 2016 with the acquisition of Electric Lightwave (2016 Challenge Tier)
• Frontier (#9) advances from #11 in 2016 with fiber assets acquired from Verizon

Other 2017 Challenge Tier company activity:
Consolidated Communications acquired Fairpoint (2016 Challenge Tier)
Uniti Fiber acquired Southern Light (2016 Challenge Tier)
Entering the 2017 Challenge Tier: Logix Fiber Networks, moving up from the Market Players tier

Read More

Private investors to acquire Mitel

An investor group led by affiliates of Searchlight Capital Partners has agreed to acquire Mitel for approximately $2.0 billion in cash, including Mitel’s net debt.

Mitel shareholders will receive $11.15 per common share in cash, representing a premium of approximately 24% to the 90-calendar-day volume-weighted average price of Mitel common shares through April 23, 2018. 

Upon completion of the transaction, Mitel will become a privately held company.

Terry Matthews, Mitel Co-founder and Chairman, said, “Mitel has succeeded for 45 years because of persistent innovation and relentless focus on delivering shareholder value. Our Board determined that this transaction, upon closing, will deliver immediate, significant and certain cash value to our shareholders. It also affirms the tremendous value and market leadership of Mitel. We believe this transaction will provide Mitel with additional flexibility as a private company to pursue the company’s move-to-the-cloud strategy.”

Read More