Nokia closed the acquisition of Infinera. This transaction combines two innovation leaders to effectively create an optical networks powerhouse with the scale to accelerate product roadmaps, expanding Nokia’s ability to help network operators – whether SPs, webscalers or enterprises – unlock opportunity and meet network and power demands for the AI era.
“I am delighted we have been able to quickly and successfully complete the acquisition of Infinera,” said Nokia’s president and CEO, Pekka Lundmark. “This transaction will significantly improve our scale and profitability in optical networks, and allows us to speed up the pace of innovation to meet the requirements of the AI era. The Infinera acquisition will accelerate our growth strategy in data centers and strengthen our presence both in North America and with webscale customers.”
“The speed with which the transaction was approved is very positive for Nokia, as is the strong support the deal has received from customers,” said Federico Guillen, president, network infrastructure, Nokia. “In welcoming our new colleagues – and the talent and expertise they bring with them – we are creating a new organization that will be a pace-setter in innovation, offering capabilities across a wide range of optical networking technologies, underpinned by the cutting-edge research of Nokia Bell Labs. Innovation benefits from scale, and the expansion offered by the acquisition means that we will be able to bring more to customers, faster.”
Infinera’s team will join the Nokia optical networks business, headed by VP and GM, James Watt. Meanwhile Infinera CEO’s David Heard will join Nokia’s network infrastructure business group as NI chief strategic growth officer. In this position he will set and oversee implementation of group growth plans, including specific customer segment strategy, product and market mix and go-to-market approach.
“I am delighted to welcome David to Nokia and to network infrastructure,” continued Guillen. “His extensive experience in technology and business strategy implementation will play a leading role in helping our business group seize opportunities in the market and achieve our ambitions across all our markets and business areas.”
“From strong growth in the webscale space to service provider successes spanning metro, long haul and subsea networks, the proven accomplishments of the Infinera team make for an ideal complement to Nokia’s recognized optical network leadership and innovation,” said Heard. “I’m excited about the widely expanded opportunities this new chapter opens up and what it means for Nokia and its network infrastructure business, and delighted to be joining the team to help accelerate its growth across all customer segments worldwide.”
With more than 1,000 customers globally, the combined company’s solutions will power some of the biggest operators worldwide, along with leading organizations in verticals such as enterprise, utilities, government and research and education.
Nokia’s offerings across the network infrastructure portfolio apply the same mission-critical standards to customers in every sector, from service providers to webscalers to organizations in a range of industry sectors. Directing innovation power towards topics such as reliability, security and sustainability – as well as capacity, flexibility and manageability – Nokia is strongly placed to bring value to data center builders and users, including in intra-data center for server-to-server connections to support the increasing demands of new AI workloads.
