Test and measurement specialist Exfo has announced it will acquire a 33% stake in Astellia, and will soon be launching a voluntary takeover bid of the company.

The purchase of Astellia will eventually take Exfo into new waters, as the organization is primarily focused on testing new solutions prior to commercial launches. With Astellia in its armoury there is potential for the team to move into the on-going network management space as Astellia focuses on performance analysis of mobile networks and subscriber experience.

Astellia describes itself as a provider of network and subscriber intelligence enabling mobile operators to improve service quality, maximize operational efficiency, reduce churn and develop revenues. The main focus of the business in recent months has been automated optimization, actionable geolocated insights and big-data analytics for operations, customer service and marketing functions of the business. In other words, it claims to give tips to operators on how to do things better. One of those ones.

“This investment in Astellia is in line with our strategy to increase our critical mass and our client base, and to expand our addressable market in the global analytics and service assurance industry,” said Germain Lamonde, Executive Chairman of Exfo’s Board of Directors.

“If our public tender offer is successful, we’ll be able to combine Astellia’s solutions and services with those of Exfo and become a world leader in the network monitoring and analytics sector and target growth opportunities such as network virtualization, 5G and the Internet of things.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Exfo will purchase the company from the three Astellia founders, as well as Isatis Capital. The deal itself is yet to clear the approval of French foreign investment authorities and the supervision of Autorité des marchés financiers. That said, Astellia’s Board of Directors has already given the thumbs up to the deal, which will total roughly €25.9 million. The deal is expected to close during the latter stages of 2017.