DALLAS, April 05, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DZS (NASDAQ:DZSI), a global leader of broadband networking and AI-driven cloud software solutions, today announced it has completed the divesture of its Asia business to DASAN Networks, Inc. (DNI), enabling the company to focus its go-to-market strategy, technology and innovation on the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa (AEMEA), and Australia/New Zealand (ANZ) regions. The transaction eliminates ~$43 million of debt, reducing the total long-term debt to $15 million.
On Jan. 5, 2024, DZS signed a definitive agreement to sell its Asia operations to DNI, for $48 million (including the elimination of $43 million in debt). In addition to focusing on growth regions spanning the Americas, EMEA and ANZ, the divestiture aligns with the vision, strategy and growth pillars DZS has been pursuing for the past three years, specifically:
- Fiber broadband investment cycle fueled by over $100 billion in government stimulus funds
- Growth spanning North America, Europe and the Middle East
- Geopolitical security related cap-and-grow opportunities
- Software-defined networking (SDN)
- 5G mobile transport adoption
"This milestone allows DZS to amplify our focus on the communications service providers (CSPs) that are aligned with and adopting our open, standards-based broadband access and software defined networking solutions," said Charlie Vogt, President and CEO, DZS. "We believe this decision and refined focus will improve customer and shareholder value over the long-term. As a result of approximately $130 million of research and development invested in innovation over the past three years, inclusive of three technology acquisitions, our category defining fiber broadband and AI-driven cloud software solutions are creating new opportunities with existing and new prospective service providers."
The new focus on AEMEA and ANZ regions strategically aligns with the technology and acquisition investments DZS has made over the past several years, specifically the company's market-leading Velocity access edge optical line terminal (OLT) portfolio; award-winning Saber optical edge dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) and reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (ROADM) platform resulting from its Optelian acquisition; and its advanced AI-driven orchestration, automation, slicing, network assurance and WiFi management software portfolio resulting from the company's acquisitions of RIFT and ASSIA software and R&D assets, respectively. It also corresponds with the global regions where billions of dollars in government stimulus programs aimed at enhancing and ...