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Segment Analysis: Test & Measurement

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VoicenData Bureau
New Update

T &M has been emerging a focused technology industry. The

trend can be identified with major developments last fiscal like the formation

of Agilent Technologies and Tektronix hiving off its other businesses and

sticking to T&M as focus.

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In fact this can be treated as the second phenomenon of

internal restructuring of big T&M companies, where focus is the underlying

factor, the first being acquisitions. And the next phase could witness mergers

among the smaller companies to form a larger entity that provides total

solution. Also, the bigger companies–Agilent, Tektronix, Wavetek Wandel

Goltermann, and Anritsu Wiltron–especially the first three, are likely to

embark on acquisition sprees.

As a result of digitalization and globalization and product

cycles coming down, along with it being more software driven, the T&M

industry is getting more focused.

The role of a T&M vendor or distributor is changing from

a product seller to that of a service provider. As quality of service becomes

more important, both bigger and smaller companies will increasingly go in for

T&M. And this puts T&M company in the same role as a network integrator

today. It will have to sell its competitor’s products, if the situation so

demands. And increasingly, T&M companies are look at using Internet beyond

marketing and information dissemination, for online support.

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Major T&M vendors who see a business opportunity in India

will like to come to India directly. For example, Wavetek had an indirect

presence in India, but after its merger with W&G, it is in India directly.

Further, as T&M is becoming software driven, it can utilize India as a base

to accommodate new lines.

Trends

The trends for local T&M companies in India, excluding

the manufacturers like Aplab and Meco, are expected as follows. Firstly there

will be some that will continue to do some kind of business with government

users and survive for some more time. Then there will be some that will change

by adding more value to themselves and continue with some selected principals.

And there will be a new breed that will specialize in testing and maintenance,

and largely provide services.

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The total T&M industry across services and products is about Rs 250 crore,

an increase of 18 percent in comparison to 1998-99. However, opening up of new

circles for private operators, coming of utilities to communications, and the



opening up of long distance will push up demands. But except for a few of them,
most will look for T&M services rather than T&M products.

Click Here for 1998-99 Performance of T&M

Recent M&As in T&M

W&G-Wavetek



Wandel & Goltermann (W&G) and Wavetek merged to form one of the
biggest T&M companies in the world–Wavetek Wandel Goltermann (WWG)

Ltd.

IFR-Marconi



IFR Systems Inc. acquired Marconi Instruments Ltd, UK, and Marconi
Instruments Inc., US, from The General Electric Company PLC, London,

England.

GN Nettest-Fastware



GN Nettest bought the privately-owned French company Fastware SA which
develops systems for monitoring and management of extensive data networks

WANs.

Tekelec-IEX



Tekelec completed its acquisition of IEX Corp., a privately-held developer
of solutions for Intelligent Networks (IN), call centres, and other

telecom markets.

IFR-GN Nettest



IFR Systems, Inc. sold its Optical Test & Measurement (OTM) Division
to GN Nettest, a company in the GN Great Nordic Group, Denmark.

Sunrise-Hukk Engineering



Sunrise Telecom, Inc., acquired Hukk Engineering, the leader in QAM
Digital testing.

Noise Com-Boonton



Noise Com announced the execution of a definitive agreement to merge
Boonton Electronics Corp. into a wholly-owned subsidiary of Noise Com.

Agilent Technologies-Qosnetics



Agilent Technologies, the spin-off of Hewlett-Packard, has acquired
Qosnetics, a New Hampshire start-up that builds products to test

networking hardware for the Internet.

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