Tejas Networks Acquired Saankhya Labs to Enhance Wireless Products Offering

Tejas Networks announced that it has signed definitive agreements to acquire 64.40 percent of shares of Saankhya Labs Private Ltd. Bangalore ("Saankhya") for INR 283.94 Cr in cash.

The initial acquisition of Saankhya shares is expected to close within the next 90 days. Tejas Networks, upon procuring all necessary consents and approvals, also intends to proceed with acquiring the balance 35.60 percent shares through a merger process or a secondary acquisition.

Saankhya was founded in 2007 by technology entrepreneurs with global experience and has developed a wide range of system and semiconductor products for cellular Wireless, Broadcast radios and Satellite communication ground-terminal, which are deployed by customers in India and in international markets.

With a rich IPR portfolio and 73 international patents (41 granted, 32 filed), Saankhya is a pioneer in building software defined radios (SDR), powered by its own SDR chipsets. Saankhya has a strong technology team of more than 250 engineers, with deep expertise in wireless communication systems and fabless-semiconductor design.

Sanjay Nayak, CEO & MD of Tejas Networks said, "We are committed to our vision to create a global telecom equipment company from India, which will provide an end-to-end stack of world-class products and solutions based on latest technologies and customer requirements. This acquisition shows our continued commitment to expand our wireless product offerings to address the growing market opportunity. Saankhya's products would complement our existing 4G/5G Radio Access Network (RAN) products and positions us well for the emerging opportunities in the O-RAN and 5G Broadcast space. We are excited to welcome the highly talented and experienced team of Saankhya and the intellect and domain expertise they bring for wireless as well as semiconductor design. We expect that this acquisition will accelerate our roadmap to create a full range of trusted and secured, world-class telecommunication products."

Parag Naik, Co-founder and CEO of Saankhya Labs said, "We are delighted to become a part of Tejas Networks, which is India's leading telecom equipment company. Being part of Tejas Networks gives us a strong platform to scale up the business for our wireless products and technologies in India as well as in to international markets. Our customers and partners will also benefit from a larger product portfolio and an accelerated roadmap of our products. This merger will further Saankhya's founding team's vision to build a world class technology company from India."

ONE Media 3.0, LLC ("ONE Media") which is the largest shareholder of Saankhya, will sell majority of its shareholding in Saankhya and post merger, will retain a minority shareholding in Tejas.

Mark Aitken, ONE Media's President said, "Our close relationship with Saankhya has been critical to moving our company forward in the world of NextGen Broadcasting. Saankhya has delivered world-class products, technology and solutions, spanning across communication as well as semiconductor domains. From mobile phone design to low-cost, efficient broadcast radio heads enabling single frequency networks, its contributions have been a strategic key for us. We look forward to continuing our business and technology engagement with Tejas Networks, in opportunity areas such as cellularized 5G broadcast infrastructure."

Tejas Networks designs, develops and sells high-performance wireline and wireless networking products to telecommunications service providers, internet service providers, utilities, defence and government entities in over 75 countries. Tejas products utilize programmable, software-defined hardware architecture with a common software code-base that delivers seamless upgrades of new features and technology standards.