Rakuten to acquire Altiostar at $1 billion

Japan’s Rakuten Group on Wednesday 04/08/2021 said it will acquire US-based open virtual radio access network (open vRAN) provider Altiostar Networks Inc. The total valuation of Altiostar is over $1 billion, and Rakuten to acquire Altiostar marks a significant move in telecom innovation. The objective is to accelerate the global deployment of open, cloud-native and interoperable network infrastructure.

Rakuten Group CEO, Mickey Mikitani said : “We’re delighted to welcome the Altiostar team to the Rakuten family as we share a common passion for empowering mobile networks through disruptive innovation, offering mobile operators around the world secure, cost-effective and highly agile technology.” Indeed, Rakuten to acquire Altiostar demonstrates this commitment to the future of network technology.

Altiostar is currently 4G and 5G Open vRAN solutions to global telcos, allowing them to shift to webscale cloud-native mobile networks. Furthermore, it is offering its suite of Open vRAN network functions on Rakuten’s fully virtualized, cloud-native platform, the Rakuten Communications Platform. This context highlights the strategic significance of Rakuten to acquire Altiostar for advancing next-generation connectivity.

Altiostar Networks CEO, Ashraf Dahod said “Becoming a Rakuten Group company will allow us to build on our foundation and accelerate our technology development to help operators to innovate, explore new business models and bring affordable broadband to the masses through web-scale mobile networks,” added

Altiostar company works with Airtel in India, Dish in the United States, and Telefonica in Europe and Latam, It also has key partnerships with global companies including RCP, Cisco, VMware, Dell, Fujitsu, IBM/Red Hat, Intel, NEC, Qualcomm, Sterlite, Tech Mahindra, Facebook Connectivity, among others. In short, Rakuten to acquire Altiostar is expected to further strengthen such global partnerships.