Oracle to buy Tekelec for policy control, signalling and data management

Oracle has entered into an agreement to acquire Tekelec, a provider of network signalling, policy control and subscriber data management solutions for communications networks.

By combining Tekelec with capabilities from Oracle Communications and Acme Packet, the session border control specialist – which Oracle is also in the process of acquiring for US$2.1 billion, Oracle expects to provide the most complete communications offering that will enable service providers to engage with customers, improve operations, control network resources and deploy innovative communications services.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed but Tekelec was taken private by Siris Capital for US$780 million in Nov 2011. Since then, the Nasdaq market has risen by about 20% so a price of around $1 billion seems a fair estimate.

“As connected devices and applications become ubiquitous, intelligent network and service control technologies are required to enable service providers to efficiently deploy all-IP networks, and deliver and monetise innovative communication services,” said Bhaskar Gorti, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Communications. “The combination of Oracle and Tekelec will provide service providers with the most complete solution to manage their businesses across customer engagement, business and network operations, service delivery and end user applications.”

Ron de Lange, president and CEO, Tekelec, added: “In an increasingly mobile and social world, customer experience is about optimising network performance and personalising services based on what engages, moves and inspires people. Together with Oracle, we expect to accelerate the pace of service innovation by helping service providers transform the way they manage and monetise the explosive growth in signaling and data traffic on their networks.”

The policy control and management market has seen a lot of acqusition activity recently. OSS/BSS vendor Amdocs acquired Bridgewater Systems in 2011 and network equipment vendor Cisco Systems acquired policy specialist Broadhop this January, indicating that vendors across the telecoms sector see policy as central to their propositions.

Analysts see the acquisitions of Tekelec and Acme Packet extending Oracle’s telecoms offerings. “This acquisition further extends Oracle’s move into the heart of telecom networks,” says Dana Cooperson, principal analyst at Ovum. “Tekelec will extend Oracle Communication’s network control capabilities, which it also bolstered with its February announcement to acquire Acme Packet. Tekelec also focuses on extending its service control solutions, adding policy control and subscriber data management to its list of capabilities. Oracle has in the past partnered to provide these capabilities, but by bringing them in-house it will have more opportunity to shape the roadmap and combine the capabilities in a more tightly-coupled solution.”

Cooperson expects other vendors to make acquisition moves of their own in these technologies. “Expect Oracle’s telecom-focused competitors – Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei, Ericsson – and it’s IT-focused competitors – HP, SAP, SAS Institute – to do more strategic soul-searching and, as their financial situation allows, to pursue acquisitions of their own,” she adds. “Key areas for strategic shoring-up include customer experience management, applications enablement, big data analytics, subscriber data management and network and service control intelligence.”

 


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