The European Commission “unconditionally” approved Nokia’s takeover of the San Jose-based firm, with the deal officially closed on February 28.
Outgoing Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark said the deal would allow the company to accelerate its growth strategy in data centres and strengthen its presence both in North America and with webscale customers.
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The acquisition, first unveiled last June, sees Infinera join Nokia’s optical networks business, with the company’s CEO David Heard joining Nokia’s network infrastructure business group as NI chief strategic growth officer.
Nokia’s purchase of Infinera aligns with its push into the data centre market, with the company stating the acquisition will help it “meet the requirements of the AI era”.
Nokia's appointment of Justin Hotard, formerly head of Intel's data centre and AI group, as its new CEO adds to its commitment to expanding in the data center sector.
The company said it was “strongly placed to bring value to data centres builders and users”, following its Infinera acquisition.
Jimmy Yu, industry analyst at Dell'Oro Group, said the combined market share of the two companies places them with the second highest share for optical transports in North America, EMEA, and Asia Pacific, excluding China.
Infinera joins a string of recent Nokia acquisitions, including Fenix Group and API firm Rapid, while divestments like Alcatel Submarine Networks signal a sharpened focus on core network infrastructure.
Aurojyoti Bose, lead analyst at GlobalData, said: “Nokia's decision to acquire companies while simultaneously selling certain assets seems like a strategic manoeuvre aimed at optimizing its business portfolio and enhancing its market position. This dual approach is primarily focused on strengthening its core business segments, particularly in network infrastructure and optical networks.
“The combined capabilities of Nokia and Infinera are anticipated to improve the competitive positioning in optical networking solutions and the move also forms a part of Nokia’s growth strategy to strengthen its presence in North America.”
