The move is part of a continued strategy by NSN to cut costs and focus on its core mobile broadband business.
It has been a busy week for the vendor having also announced the sale of its optical networks business to Marlin Equity Partners and that it would cut 1,000 jobs in Germany as part of plans to close a subsidiary that was relying on providing services to Deutsche Telekom.
NSN’s BSS business provides charging, rating, policy and customer care to 130 service providers, with a global footprint spanning more than 90 counties in Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. .
As part of the deal approximately 1,200 employees in Germany, India and Poland will be transferred to Redknee along with NSN’s BSS customer and supplier contracts, intellectual property rights and fixed assets.
“This planned acquisition marks a significant milestone in Redknee’s long-term growth strategy. It would add strong long-standing relationships with new Tier 1 operators and expand Redknee’s market share and presence in high growth markets. Our expanded team would drive the continued success of our customers, as we strive to be the provider of choice for real-time converged billing, customer care, policy, and payment solutions in the communications industry,” said Lucas Skoczkowski, CEO at Redknee.
Redknee will finance the transaction through a combination of cash and debt facilities; the deal will be worth €15 million at closing plus a maximum of €25 million in performance-based cash earn outs in the 12 to 36 months after closing.
NSN will retain a small number of broader customer contracts that include elements of BSS for mobile broadband related mediation.
“This planned transaction supports our transformation to focus on mobile broadband. Both Redknee and Nokia Siemens Networks have a reputation for high quality and customer commitment, which provides a common foundation for Redknee to build the BSS business in the future. We will work with Redknee to ensure a smooth transfer of the business and to provide some mobile broadband specific elements of the BSS portfolio to our customers,” said Rajeev Suri, CEO of Nokia Siemens Networks.
The acquisition is expected to close in the first half of 2013 subject to regulatory, exchange and third party approvals.
Canaccord Genuity acted as financial advisor to Redknee.
