The company was founded by Jack Bowthorpe in 1936 as Goodliffe Electric Supplies. In 1949 it changed its name to Bowthorpe. It acquired Optima Electronics in 1987 and disposed of its defence businesses in 1990. The company's electronics business grew rapidly during the dot-com boom of the 1990s, with the 1995 purchase of Telecom Analysis Systems and the 1997 purchase of businesses such as Adtech, a digital test equipment concern based in Hawaii and the company was a member of the FTSE 100 index from time to time. It disposed of its automotive industry businesses in 1999, the same year that it bought Netcom Systems, a US telecoms testing business which makes network equipment testers, and DLS, a Canadian telecoms testing business. In 2000 it also bought Hekimian, a major Operations Support Systems business, Zarak Systems, another communications software business and Net-Hopper, an access systems specialist. In 2000 it changed its name to Spirent. The name is derived from the words "inspired innovation." It acquired Caw Networks, a Santa Clara company which makes network performance testing appliances including Avalanche, in 2002, Scientific Software Engineering, a United States-based developer of software including Landslide for testing the performance and functionality of wireless network infrastructure, in 2006, Imperfect Networks, an IDS/IPS testing company, in 2006, and Fanfare Software, a United States-based developer of the iTest automation software, in 2011. It went on to buy Mu Dynamics, a Sunnyvale company which makes cloud and app testing products such as Blitz, and Metrico Wireless, the global leader in mobile device performance analytics for wireless service providers, OEMs and corporate enterprises based in Frederick, Maryland, in 2012. In July 2014, Spirent acquired Radvision's Technology Business Unit from Avaya. Radvision a company based in Tel Aviv, Israel, offers development and test suites for voice and Vvideo over IP communications. In September 2014, Spirent announced that it acquired Mobilethink A/S and its wholly owned subsidiary, Tweakker ApS, a provider of mobile device management, device analytics and intelligence solutions for mobile operators. In July 2017, both the Tel Aviv operations and Mobilethink were divested by way of a management buyout into a separate company, Softil.
Operations
Spirent Communications PLC is a communications and network testing company. Spirent mainly consists of the former Consultronics , Netcom Systems, Adtech, Zarak Systems, Caw Networks, Hekimian, Telecom Analysis Systems in 1995, Global Simulation Systems in 1997, DLS in 1998 and a number of other small network test equipment providers that it has acquired such as Imperfect Networks.
