VeriSign agreed to sell its Messaging Business to Syniverse Holdings (NYSE: SVR) for $175 million in cash. The business has an annual revenue run-rate of approximately $140 million over the last 12 months. The business unit has approximately 300 employees, of which 100 are based in India.
The deal combines Syniverse’s NEXT Advanced Messaging Hub and messaging services with with four of VeriSign’s operator and enterprise messaging solutions:
- Inter-Carrier Gateway enables operators to deliver inter-carrier person-to-person SMS and MMS messages across geographies and technologies.
- PictureMail — provides an MMS platform with core components that include a hosted MMS service center (MMSC) for MMS routing, handset photo applications, a social networking interface, and photo storage and sharing capabilities.
- Premium Messaging Gateway — manages delivery of “off-portal” or third-party content to subscribers.
- Mobile Enterprise Solutions — enables businesses to send time- and event-based messages or alerts via voice, text message or email to customers, employees or partners, and allows operators to offer their high-value customers a broader array of services, including enterprise and mobile financial services.
“As mobile messaging volumes continue to experience double-digit growth, Syniverse will have the scale, reach and capabilities needed to provide mobile operators — large or small — with greater vendor choice and faster time to market for the services subscribers demand. Ultimately, the mobile consumer will benefit from more messaging services and applications,” stated Tony Holcombe, President and CEO, Syniverse.
“Even under challenging economic conditions, we have continued to execute on our divestiture strategy through aligning with buyers with complementary strengths,” said Mark McLaughlin, president and CEO of VeriSign. “We are pleased to continue making progress on our divestiture program with this latest agreement with Syniverse.”http://www.verisign.com
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