Ortiva Wireless bought by Allot Communications

Allot Communications  (NASDAQ: ALLT) announced last week that it is acquiring Ortiva Wireless, the company launched by University of California, San Diego Electrical Engineering Professor Sujit Dey in 2004 to manage mobile video and rich media content delivery. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Allot, which is based in Tel Aviv, said in a May 1 statement that incorporating Ortiva’s “leading-edge mobile video optimization solution” with its own Allot Service Gateway technology will “allow mobile service providers to effectively manage the ever-increasing volume of video traffic on their networks, which according to Allot’s latest Global MobileTrends report, now represents 42% of mobile data traffic worldwide.”

We asked Dey for his thoughts on the acquisition and he responded:

 “I am pleased with the intended acquisition as it will be complimentary and strategic, in line with rising market demand for integrated mobile data management solutions. Allot’s fast expanding customer base will be beneficial for deployment of Ortiva’s video delivery solutions globally. Allot is committed to expanding the operations in San Diego, so it is good for the San Diego economy. I truly appreciate the support and encouragement that I received while founding Ortiva and later from UC San Diego, including from Dean Frieder Seible and the Jacobs School, Calit2, the ECE department, the von Liebig Center, and the Technology Transfer office.”

News of the acquisition sent Allot’s stock climbing in response to analysts’ expectations that the company’s momentum in the network traffic management sector will continue, particularly as the market for smart phones and computer tablets expands. RCR Wireless reported that “mobile video is expected to comprise 41% to 67% of telecom network traffic by 2015.”

San Diego-based Xconomy reported that Allot intends to maintain Ortiva’s San Diego office and expects the 41-person staff here to grow. 

Dey (third from the left in photo) talked about the process of launching Ortiva Wireless and the challenges of commercialization during a recent dinner celebrating the 10^th anniversary of the von Liebig Center for Entrepreneurism and Technology Advancement, which offers seed funding and advisory services and is part of the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego. It was with a grant from the von Liebig Center, that Dey created a prototype that became the core technology to launch Ortiva Wireless.