Software giant Oracle will acquire Irish network intelligence and analytics firm Netsure, the latest in a series of telecom industry acquisitions.
Announcing the takeover at a press briefing in Beijing on Monday, Li Weiming, vice president for Asia Pacific and Japan of Oracle's communications global business unit, says the deal should boost Oracle's ability to help telecom operators improve network utilization, optimize capacity planning, and financial modeling, and streamline network life cycle management.
"The addition of Netsure allows us to move into the fast growing network inventory area, and strengthen our position in the communication sector with the ability to provide end-to-end solutions," Li said.
David Mitchell, senior vice-president IT research at Ovum, said NetSure products were complementary to the rest of the Oracle communications portfolio and position it well to provide software infrastructure support to the growing NGN phenomenon.
"Oracle has always been a major software player in the communications industry, with market share dominance in its database technology. The string of acquisitions has turned it an even more significant player in the market," he said in a research note.
Li said the transaction is scheduled to be completed by the end of the month, and Netsure's management and staff will be transferred to Oracle's communications global business. He would not disclose the financial value of the transaction or the number of staff involved.
Oracle will work on incorporating Netsure's software and tools into Oracle's communication suite, and before that Netsure's software will be available soon for the China market as a standalone solution, he added.
Netsure software helps ensure the smooth operation of existing and next generation network and services. Its solutions have been deployed by tier-one carriers such as Vodafone Ireland, Eircom and Cable & Wireless.