ADVA Optical Networking SE was a European telecommunications vendor that provides network equipment for data, storage, voice and video services. It was founded in 1994 by Brian Protiva. On August 30, 2021, it was announced that ADVA and Adtran Holdings would be merging, continuing business under the name Adtran.

Corporate history

ADVA was founded in 1994 by Brian Protiva. It established its headquarters in Martinsried in Munich (district) and its first production facility in Meiningen. Funded by Egora Holding, the company's initial focus was on the development of wavelength division multiplexing technology designed to provide enterprises, including banks, insurance firms and utilities, with high-bandwidth network connectivity.

Acquisitions

In 2014, ADVA Optical Networking acquired Oscilloquartz. Following the purchase, ADVA continued to expand and develop Oscilloquartz's portfolio of end-to-end synchronization technology. In 2016, ADVA acquired Overture. In 2017, ADVA Optical Networking acquired its US rival, MRV Communications in an effort to increase its cloud access portfolio and strengthen its Network Edge portfolio. Following the acquisition, one MRV executive, Scott St. John, was appointed to ADVA's board.

Market share

In 2009, Infonetics Research listed ADVA as the industry leader (#1 position) in the Ethernet Access Device (EAD) space with a market share of 20 percent, based on 2008 revenues. In 2016, ADVA was listed as the industry leader (#1 position) in Ovum's data center interconnect (DCI) global market share report, with the largest market share in both the metro ICP/CNP and enterprise categories.

Recent history

ADVA's annual revenues surpassed half a billion euros in 2016, peaking at 556.7 million euros. ADVA demonstrated the world's first 100G quantum safe transport over 2800 km on 13 June 2018. ADVA's FSP 3000 TeraFlex terminal broke industry records on 24 July 2019, achieving 200 Gbit/s per wavelength transmission over a distance of 5,738 km with 2.5bit/symbol, and 500 Gbit/s over 1,016 km with 5bit/symbol modulation. The trial was conducted with partners: the Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center (PSNC), EENet of HITSA and Tele2 Estonia. ADVA announced in August 2021 that they are planning a merger with ADTRAN in an all-stock transaction with ADTRAN shareholders to own approximately 54% and ADVA shareholders to own approximately 46% of the combined company.

Awards

Sustainability

In 2016, ADVA announced it was joining the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), an organisation set up by the World Resources Institute. ADVA joined the initiative with the aim of contributing to the global effort to keep the average global temperature below a 1.5 °C rise beyond pre-industrial levels, in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement. In 2017, ADVA submitted its targets, which were primarily focused on reducing indirect consumer emissions, to the SBTi. The SBTi validated ADVA's targets in 2019. On 8 October 2020, ADVA announced a new commitment via a press release: it would achieve a 67% reduction in emissions from its operations by the year 2032.