NEW YORK-Fraud fighter Coral Systems Inc. plans to go public in an offering that could raise more than $20 million.
Coral, which provides client-server software to help wireless carriers reduce fraud and churn, registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week for permission to issue 2.7 million shares of common stock. The expected price range of the initial public offering is $10 to $12 per share. Montgomery Securities, San Francisco, is lead manager of the IPO. The stock will trade on Nasdaq.
Proceeds of the sale will be used for working capital and general corporate purposes.
Longmont, Colo.-based Coral “has entered into strategic development and distribution relationships with manufacturers and providers of switching equipment and billing services, including Cincinnati Bell Information Systems Inc., Ericsson RadioSystems AB, Lucent Technologies Inc. and Northern Telecom Ltd.,” said documents filed with the SEC. “Wireless carriers using the company’s products include: AirTouch Communications Inc., BellSouth PCS, Cox Communications Inc., Orange Personal Communications Services and Sprint Spectrum.”
Coral said its products are based on a proprietary core technology that permits rapid product development, portability, technology independence and enhanced scalability. The company authorizes the use of its products under contracts that usually include an initial licensing fee and annual maintenance fee for a set number of subscribers, with add-ons to both fees for additional subscribers above the number in the original agreements.
Its fraud management software, FraudBuster, is designed to detect various kinds of fraud, including cloning, cellular telephone theft, subscription fraud and tumbling fraud. FraudBuster can be expanded using Coral’s veRiFier line extension, which provides “interfaces to complementary fraud prevention products, including radio frequency signature detection,” the company said in its SEC filings.
Coral’s churn management software, ChurnAlert, permits “carriers to analyze and identify potential churn candidates before they seek customer service assistance or deactivate service.”
Coral also produces two networking products: Home Location Register, which is designed to enable seamless roaming, enhanced services and optimal switching capacity; and DataMessage Handler, which permits carriers to gather and disseminate data on a nearly real-time basis in order to facilitate billing, fraud detection, churn prevention and customer service.
