Spirent Communications plc is a British multinational telecommunications testing company headquartered in

Crawley Crawley () is a large town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of and had a population of 106,597 at the time of th ...

, West Sussex, in the United Kingdom. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the

FTSE 250 Index The FTSE 250 Index ( "Footsie") is a capitalisation-weighted index consisting of the 101st to the 350th largest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. Promotions and demotions to and from the index occur quarterly in March, June, Septemb ...

History

The company was founded by

Jack Bowthorpe Jack Bowthorpe (1905–1978) was the founder of Spirent plc, one of the United Kingdom's largest telecommunications businesses. Early life Orphaned, he started working at the General Electric Co. in London, aged 16, as a ledger clerk, before mo ...

in 1936 as Goodliffe Electric Supplies. In 1949 it changed its name to Bowthorpe. It acquired Optima Electronics in 1987 and disposed of its defence businesses in 1990. The company's electronics business grew rapidly during the dot-com boom of the 1990s, with the 1995 purchase of Telecom Analysis Systems (located in Eatontown, New Jersey) and the 1997 purchase of businesses such as Adtech, a digital test equipment concern based in Hawaii and the company was a member of the FTSE 100 index from time to time. It disposed of its automotive industry businesses in 1999, the same year that it bought Netcom Systems, a US telecoms

testing An examination (exam or evaluation) or test is an educational assessment intended to measure a test-taker's knowledge, skill, aptitude, physical fitness, or classification in many other topics (e.g., beliefs). A test may be administered verba ...

business which makes network equipment testers, and DLS, a Canadian telecoms

business. In 2000 it also bought Hekimian, a major Operations Support Systems business, Zarak Systems, another communications software business and Net-Hopper, an access systems specialist. In 2000 it changed its name to Spirent. The name is derived from the words "inspired innovation." It acquired Caw Networks, a Santa Clara company which makes network performance testing appliances including Avalanche, in 2002, Scientific Software Engineering, a United States-based developer of software including Landslide for testing the performance and functionality of wireless network infrastructure, in 2006, Imperfect Networks, an IDS/IPS testing company, in 2006, and Fanfare Software, a United States-based developer of the ''iTest'' automation software, in 2011. It went on to buy Mu Dynamics, a

Sunnyvale Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwest Santa Clara County in the U.S. state of California. Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real and Highway 101 and is bordered by portions of San Jose to the north ...

company which makes cloud and app testing products such as Blitz, and Metrico Wireless, a company involved in mobile device performance analytics for wireless service providers, OEMs and corporate enterprises based in Frederick, Maryland, in 2012. In July 2014, Spirent acquired Radvision's Technology Business Unit from Avaya. Radvision a company based in Tel Aviv, Israel, offers development and test suites for voice and video over IP communications. In September 2014, Spirent announced that it acquired Mobilethink A/S and its wholly owned subsidiary, Tweakker ApS, a provider of mobile device management for mobile operators. In July 2017, both the Tel Aviv operations and Mobilethink were divested by way of a

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management-, and/or leveraged buyout became noted phenomena of 1 ...

into a separate company, Softil.

Operations

Spirent Communications PLC is a communications and network testing company. Spirent mainly consists of the former Consultronics (later DLS Testworks) (of

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

, Ontario), Netcom Systems (of Chatsworth, California and later Calabasas, California), Adtech (of Honolulu, Hawaii), Zarak Systems (of

Sunnyvale, California Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwest Santa Clara County in the U.S. state of California. Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real and Highway 101 and is bordered by portions of San Jose to the nort ...

), Caw Networks (of San Jose, California), Hekimian (of

Rockville, Maryland Rockville is a city that serves as the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, and is part of the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area. The 2020 census tabulated Rockville's population at 67,117, making it the fifth-largest community in ...

), Telecom Analysis Systems (of Eatontown, New Jersey) in 1995, Global Simulation Systems (of Paignton, Devon) in 1997, DLS (of

, Ontario) in 1998 and a number of other small network test equipment providers that it has acquired such as Imperfect Networks (of

Burlington, Massachusetts Burlington is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 26,377 at the 2020 census. History It is believed that Burlington takes its name from the English town of Bridlington, Yorkshire, but this has never b ...

References

External links

Official site
{{Authority control Telecommunications companies of the United Kingdom Companies based in Sussex Telecommunications companies established in 1936 Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange 1936 establishments in England