Business

International cable company Liberty Global has agreed to buy Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC), a telecommunications company with operations in the Caribbean and Central America.

The company says the strategic combination “will create the leading consumer and business-to-business communications provider in Latin America and the Caribbean”.

Global bandwidth provider Zayo Group has agreed to acquire the infrastructure and non-Irish enterprise businesses of Dublin-based Viatel for approximately €95 million ($102 million).

Viatel is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Digiweb Group, a full service telecommunications and managed services operator.

“This transformative acquisition cements Zayo as a leading pan-European infrastructure provider and positions Zayo to capture significant organic and inorganic growth in Europe and beyond,” said Karl Maier, president of Zayo International.

Ericsson and Cisco have formed a global business and technology partnership that aims at helping them innovate and compete more effectively in their target markets – service providers, enterprise IT and the Internet of Things (IoT).

The pair anticipate that the relationship will generate $1 billion or more in additional sales for each company by 2018.

The multi-faceted partnership will bring together Ericsson’s strength in mobility, managed services and network management with Cisco, the leader in the IP and enterprise space.

Suitors are fighting over the storage and networking chip vendor PMC Sierra.

PMC has received an unsolicited proposal from Microsemi Corp. to acquire all of the outstanding shares of PMC common stock in a cash and stock transaction. Under the terms of Microsemi’s proposal, PMC stockholders would receive $8.75 in cash and 0.0736 of a share of Microsemi common stock for each share of PMC common stock held at the close of the transaction.

Dell and its owners – founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Michael S. Dell, MSD Partners and Silver Lake – have signed a definitive agreement to acquire EMC, while maintaining VMware as a publicly-traded company.

The total price of the acquisition is reported to be approximately $67 billion (€58.9 billion) – the largest merger of two technology firms in history.

This acquisition signifies a commitment from Dell to the server markets, particularly data centre and hybrid cloud deployments for enterprise customers.

Nokia’s planned acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent is progressing, with the company announcing the planned leadership and organisational structure that it intends to implement after – and subject to – the successful conclusion of the transaction.

Wireless semiconductor supplier Skyworks Solutions has agreed to buy PMC-Sierra in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $2 billion.

Under the terms of the agreement, Skyworks will pay PMC’s stockholders $10.50 per share, representing a 37 per cent premium on the stock price as of the close of trading on 5 October.

Optical start-up aXenic has acquired Finisar UK Ltd and its optical modulator business for an undisclosed sum from parent company Finisar.

Founded through a management buyout in August 2015, aXenic, plans to address wider markets than the telecom business that was the focus of its activity as part of Finisar.

aXenic’s technology was originally developed as part of the semiconductor business within Filtronic, and was acquired by u2t Photonics in 2009, which in turn was acquired by Finisar last year.

Signalling a move to the next phase of its development, optical systems house Coriant has named Shaygan Kheradpir as its new chief executive officer and chairman of the board.

Up to now, Kheradpir has been an operating partner in Marlin Equity Partners, the private equity firm that bought up several optical companies and then combined them under Coriant.

Kheradpir succeeds president and CEO Pat DiPietro, who will return to his former role as operating partner at Marlin, while also staying close by as Coriant's vice chairman.

Semiconductor supplier GigOptix has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Terasquare, a Seoul, Korea-based, fabless semiconductor company, in an all-cash deal.

Gigoptix will pay about $4 million to Terasquare's investors as well as an additional $1.15 million against Terasquare's debt and other liabilities. The acquisition is expected to close on 30 September.