US Company Strengthens Thales’ Position at Heart of Digital Transformation
Thales announced on 28 April it has agreed the acquisition of US company Guavus, a pioneer in real-time Big Data analytics.
Guavus is perfectly suited to the growing needs of an increasingly connected global ecosystem. The company has built a recognised industrial Big Data platform particularly suited to real-time analytics, designed to be easily implemented across any number of new markets. In addition, by bringing the expertise of its 160-strong R&D engineering workforce, Guavus will significantly enrich Thales expertise in this field. Founded in 2006, Guavus has focused on the telecommunication and cable network operators’ market, and analyses more than 5 petabytes (5,000 terabytes) of data for its customers every single day. This represents the equivalent of analysing around 3 million feature films every day or 500 times the entire print collections of the US Library of Congress. Headquartered in San Mateo, CA, the company employs 250 people, of which 50 are based in Montreal (Canada) and 140 in Gurgaon (India).
The acquisition, which sets a maximum enterprise value of US$215 million, dependent on the achievement of significant sales growth targets, is expected to close in the third quarter of 2017, subject to regulatory approvals and normal closing conditions. It follows several other recent acquisitions in the fields of connectivity, mobility and cyber security, and strengthens Thales‘ positioning in one of the key technologies at the heart of digital transformation, the processing and predictive analysis of ‘Big Data,’ an increasingly critical factor in real-time decision-making.
“Combined with our established expertise in other key digital technologies, the acquisition of Guavus represents a tremendous accelerator of our digital strategy for the benefit of our customers. The application to Thales’ core businesses of Guavus’ technologies and expertise in big data analytics will strengthen our ability to support the digital transformation of our customers, whether in aeronautics, space, rail signalling, defence or security,” Patrice Caine, Thales Chairman and CEO, commented.
