Viavi Solutions Inc. announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the Test and Measurement business of Cobham plc for $455 million cash consideration, subject to certain customary closing adjustments. The acquisition has been approved by the Board of Directors of each company and is expected to close during the second half of VIAVI’s fiscal year 2018, subject to obtaining clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act, as well as other customary closing conditions.

The transaction significantly strengthens VIAVI’s competitive position in 5G deployment and diversifies the company into military, public safety and avionics test markets. Cobham AvComm and Wireless T&M is the leader in comprehensively testing communication service providers’ networks from the radio access network through to the network core. It has also served military, public safety and aviation markets for decades with its trusted land-mobile radio and avionics test solutions. The business generated more than $200 million of revenues in calendar year 2017.

“This combination is another step in our NSE strategy of driving operational scale and monetizing our NOL assets,” said Oleg Khaykin, president and CEO of VIAVI. “Cobham AvComm and Wireless T&M are recognized leaders with a world-class team that has a long track record of successfully bringing innovative solutions to market. Together, we expect new opportunities to grow through channel expansion and technology sharing as we address rapidly emerging opportunities in 5G, software-defined and virtualized test.”

Upon closing, the transaction is expected to be meaningfully accretive to VIAVI’s free cash flow and non-GAAP earnings per share and monetize net operating losses (NOLs).