Rakuten agreed to buy the rest of Altiostar, the Massachusetts company whose software runs the radio network of Rakuten Mobile in Japan. Rakuten first invested in 2019 and held a large minority stake; it paid about $370 million for the remaining shares, held by investors including Qualcomm Ventures and Telefónica, in a deal that valued Altiostar at more than $1 billion. The deal On August 4, 2021, Rakuten Group said it would buy all the Altiostar shares it did not already own. It did not put out a price in English, but Japanese reports and M&A Online put the cost of the extra shares at about $370 million, or about ¥40 billion. Rakuten said the deal valued Altiostar at more than $1 billion. The sellers included Qualcomm Ventures and Telefónica's venture arm. About Altiostar Altiostar, founded in 2011 near Boston, makes software that runs the radio part of a mobile network on ordinary computers in the cloud, instead of on special equipment from makers such as Ericsson or Nokia. This approach is called Open RAN. Rakuten Mobile used Altiostar software across its network in Japan, launched in 2020. How Rakuten built its stake Rakuten invested about $114 million in Altiostar in 2019 and in 2020 bought Tech Mahindra's 17.5% stake for $45 million, which made it the largest shareholder. Taking full ownership was the last step. Strategy Rakuten wanted to sell its mobile network know-how to other operators. Shortly after the deal it created Rakuten Symphony, which combined Altiostar with other Rakuten network units to sell Open RAN systems abroad. Customers it has announced include 1&1 in Germany. What to watch Whether Rakuten Symphony wins more big carriers, and how much Open RAN technology mainstream operators adopt compared with traditional network equipment.
