Microsoft’s acquisition of Affirmed Networks strengthens its position in the enterprise 5G market

Microsoft intends to acquire a major software-centric mobile core vendor to increase its attractiveness in the telecoms sector

Microsoft entered into an agreement to acquire Affirmed Networks (Affirmed), a privately held, Boston (USA)-based vendor of 4/5G mobile core networking software, for a reported USD1.35 billion at the end of March 2020. Affirmed is the largest software-centric 4/5G mobile core provider outside the major network equipment providers (NEPs) (Cisco, Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia and ZTE) and has over 100 customers, although a significant number of its deployments are in IoT networks or are for adjacent mobile core functions, such as Gi-LAN and Wi-Fi gateways. Affirmed has been working on a market-leading development of the 5G core; it is designing it from the ground up to conform with CNCF’s definition of cloud-native and is taking a more-radical view of cloud-native deployment models than its larger competitors.