The growth of the investments in these sectors and the diffusion of the business throughout Italy created the prerequisite for the purchase of the American multinational ITT through the Italian company FACE STANDARD SIETTE. The purchase contributed to the development of the company in terms of skills (entry into the railway market) and range of action (the addition of foreign markets).
The technological evolution that led to fibre optics further strengthened the Florentine company, which by now had become a leader, together with its competitors Ericsson and SIRTI. The 1990s saw the sale of the Italian businesses of ITT to ALCATEL.
Further years of growth led up to the privatisation of the Italian telecommunications sector, years characterised by strategic choices which nevertheless guided the company towards concentrating on other business contents. It was a time of transformation that required new skills to deal with new vertical markets. The attitude to the change made the new activities of great interest; an interest and know-how acquired that cause Thales to take interest in purchasing this branch of the company from Alcatel.
The result was the industrial heritage of the Sesto Fiorentino site, which had a great ability not only to adapt to change but also, in some way, to envisage it in a framework where one skill is always the lowest common denominator: innovation. Innovation based on the creation of the integration centre in Sesto Fiorentino.