Amdocs acquires Comverse BSS business for $272m

Amdocs has announced the acquisition of Comverse’s BSS business units for $272 million in cash. Amdocs is positioning the deal as a consolidation and customer acquisition play, while Comverse says it wants to focus on digital services.

Precisely how much of Comverse’s BSS operations are changing hands is a bit vague, with Amdocs referring to “a substantial majority” and Comverse saying “substantially all”, but legalese aside it essentially seems to be all of it. Both companies were keen to stress how great this is for existing Comverse customers.

“As a result of this acquisition Amdocs, with its more than 30-year industry experience, will be able to bring additional value and innovation to Comverse’s customers,” said Eli Gelman, CEO of Amdocs. “As we move forward, the strength of our company and unique business model which combines products and services will enable Amdocs to offer even better services to customers as we leverage our joint professional industry expertise for the benefit of our customers.”

“Size and scale in BSS are critical to succeed in today’s increasingly consolidating telecommunications service provider marketplace, while smaller, niche players face a more uncertain future,” said Philippe Tartavull, CEO of Comverse. “The combination of Comverse’s customer base with Amdocs’ BSS products and services creates new opportunities for our clients and Comverse employees joining Amdocs.

“Now, Comverse can focus exclusively on expanding our existing significant global market leadership in the Digital Services arena, and driving innovation in new segments of the IP communication industry that are expected to grow significantly as CSPs and enterprises take advantage of the rollout of 4G/Volte/LTE services.”

In a blog post Shuky Sheffer, President of Amdocs’ Customer Business Group, said that telco consolidation is driving vendor consolidation too. He also pointed out that the majority of Comverse BSS customers are not currently Amdocs customers, so that’s a positive, and implied they’re now in better hands anyway. The deal is set to complete in September of this year.