Justice Department requires Keysight to divest Spirent businesses

The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division announced that it will require Keysight Technologies (KEYS) to divest Spirent Communications’ high-speed ethernet testing, network security testing, and RF channel emulation businesses to resolve antitrust concerns arising from its proposed merger. The Antitrust Division filed a civil antitrust lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block the proposed transaction. At the same time, the Division filed a proposed settlement that, if approved by the court, would resolve the Division’s competitive concerns. The proposed settlement requires Keysight to divest Spirent’s businesses to Viavi (VIAV), including all tangible and intangible assets necessary to produce and sell these products. Together, these three business lines account for about 40% of Spirent’s total revenues. Viavi is expected to hire certain key Spirent employees that today support the divested business lines.