Microsoft has entered into an agreement to acquire Affirmed Networks, a privately held, Boston (USA)-based vendor of 4/5G mobile core networking software, for a reported USD1.35 billion at the end of March 2020.
Affirmed is the largest software-centric 4/5G mobile core provider outside the major network equipment providers (NEPs) (Cisco, Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia and ZTE) and has over 100 customers, although a significant number of its deployments are in IoT networks or are for adjacent mobile core functions, such as Gi-LAN and Wi-Fi gateways.
Affirmed has been working on a market-leading development of the 5G core; it is designing it from the ground up to conform with CNCF’s definition of cloud-native and is taking a more-radical view of cloud-native deployment models than its larger competitors.
Yousef Khalidi – Corporate Vice President, Azure Networking said,
This acquisition will allow us to evolve our work with the telecommunications industry, building on our secure and trusted cloud platform for operators. With Affirmed Networks, we will be able to offer new and innovative solutions tailored to the unique needs of operators, including managing their network workloads in the cloud.
