US networking testing equipment supplier Ixia explores sale

Ixia, a US supplier of networking testing equipments, is exploring a potential sale, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Ixia, which has a market cap of around $1.3 billion, is working with an investment bank on a sale process that is already under way and has attracted the interest of other companies and private equity firms, the report said.

Founded by Errol Ginsberg and Joel Weissberger in 1997, Ixia provides testing, visibility, and security solutions, strengthening applications across physical and virtual networks for enterprises, service providers, and network equipment manufacturers.

The Nasdaq-listed company operates in around 25 countries, employs around 1,750 people and has annual revenues of $516.9 million.

The California-based company's customers include manufacturers of network equipment such as Cisco and Alcatel-Lucent, service providers such as Verizon, NTT, and Deutsche Telekom, and many enterprises and government agencies.

Reuters said that the company's move comes as the ever increasing volume of data traffic flowing through social media, smartphones and cloud computing tests the resilience and integrity of networks, making offerings such as those of Ixia more popular.