Israel’s Allot Communications (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ALLT]]), which optimizes data traffic and performance for both fixed and mobile broadband networks, says it is acquiring San Diego-based Ortiva Wireless, which specializes in optimizing video streaming across wireless networks. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Ortiva CEO Marc Zionts, who was working to finalize the deal this afternoon, referred questions about the acquisition to officials at Allot, which is based near Tel Aviv, in Hod Hasharon, Israel. In response to a question about Ortiva’s local operations, Zionts says the company plans to keep its office in University City post-acquisition, and will likely grow beyond its current 41 employees.
The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter.
“The teams are very similar,” Zionts says. “We both have lots of talented people who are passionate about what they do and are excited about working with customers.” He notes that Allot CEO Rami Hadar was a co-founder of San Diego’s Ensemble Communications, where he worked for many years with Allot CTO Jay Klein. Ensemble specialized in broadband wireless access equipment.
In fact, Zionts says he also sees lots of similarities between Tel Aviv and San Diego. Both cities are both set against a sea and enjoy a Mediterranean climate. The local economies also are similar, Zionts says. Both depend largely on the military, tourism, Information Technology, and life sciences industries.
In a statement released
Author: Bruce V. Bigelow
In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here.
Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.
Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.
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