Comverse, which supplies monetization and other digital services to wireless carriers, struck a deal to buy Acision, a privately-held UK company that specializes in secure mobile messaging and engagement services. Comverse will acquire Acision for $135 million in cash, 3.13 million shares of Comverse's common stock and potential "earnout" payments of up to $35 million. The deal is expected to be completed by the end of the third quarter.
According to Comverse's annual 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, for the fiscal year that ended Jan. 31, 2014, Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) accounted for around 18 percent of its consolidated and combined revenue. "No other customer, including system integrators and value-added resellers, individually accounted for 10% or more of our combined revenue for any of the fiscal years ended January 31, 2015, 2014 or 2013," the report noted.
Following the sale of Comverse's BSS unit to Amdocs in April for $272 million, Comverse said it wanted to focus more on digital services. Acision has focused on SMS infrastructure, application-to-person messaging and enterprise messaging services. The company also recently made a push into the WebRTC market, and Comverse could be looking to expand those capabilities and leverage Acision's messaging heritage in its dealing with carriers. Release