Citrix, which, among other things, runs the GoToMeeting webinar platform, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Bytemobile, which provides data and video optimisation solutions for mobile operators. The acquisition builds on a strategic partnership announced earlier this year that combined the Bytemobile Smart Capacity technology with the Citrix NetScaler line of cloud networking solutions.
Bytemobile customers today serve more than 2bn subscribers and process more than 20 petabytes of data traffic daily. Citrix plans to build on Bytemobile as the centre of its go-to-market strategy for mobile network operators, retaining and growing its investment in the Bytemobile brand, technology, products, employees and customer relationships. Bytemobile will continue as an independent product group within the Citrix cloud networking group.
The deal gives Citrix a key strategic foothold in the core infrastructure of more than 130 mobile operators in 60 countries around the world, which it says will enhance its broader strategy of powering mobile workstyles and cloud services. Citrix says that by joining forces with Bytemobile, it will be able to offer operators combined solutions that deliver a high quality user experience to mobile subscribers, while helping operators manage the exponential growth of mobile network traffic with the best performance, visibility and efficiency. 
“The cloud and mobile revolutions are rapidly converging, and mobile operators are at the heart of this convergence,” says Klaus Oestermann, group vice president and general manager of cloud networking at Citrix. “With the integration of Bytemobile technology, products and intellectual capital, Citrix will be uniquely positioned to be a leader in the global mobile data and video infrastructure market in the LTE era.”
Since announcing their earlier strategic partnership at Mobile World Congress in February, Citrix and Bytemobile have collaborated to deliver the Bytemobile T1100 Traffic Director, which helps operators scale next-generation mobile networks and apps with the application delivery intelligence and performance of the Citrix NetScaler platform. The companies say the acquisition will further accelerate their ability to bring mobile operators a wide range of solutions to enable mobile workstyles and power cloud services.
