ATLANTA-Long known for its Internet technologies and services, VeriSign Inc. today announced plans to unify its telecommunications offerings and promote its brand to wireless carrier and content customers. The company today also announced it acquired the assets of Unimobile from Electronics For Imaging and that it signed a deal with Tatara Systems for data roaming.
“What we’ve really done in the last six months or so is to put together a strategy that is `One VeriSign,”‘ said Mahi de Silva, senior vice president and general manager of VeriSign’s wireless communications services.
The strategy means VeriSign will combine its various telecommunications offerings under one brand, and will work to leverage its wide array of technologies in order to meet market needs. For example, the company plans to transfer its Internet payment technologies to the telecommunications side, thereby allowing wireless users to pay for services and content through Internet sites, interactive voice response systems and even text messages.
“Our goal there is to provide the tools for these carriers to compete in the marketplace,” de Silva said.
Along with the new branding effort, VeriSign said it acquired Electronics For Imaging’s messaging unit Unimobile for $5.25 million in cash. VeriSign said it will incorporate Unimobile’s technology with its own services to offer interoperable text and multimedia messaging. Separately, VeriSign said its new roaming deal with Tatara will help carriers more quickly launch integrated, next-generation services at a lower cost.
VeriSign is mostly known for its Internet domain name services and its e-commerce offerings. But almost half of the company’s revenues-about $100 million in the fourth quarter-come from its telecommunications services group. VeriSign’s wireless telecommunications portfolio includes SS7 networking and connectivity, database searching, roaming and settlement, and billing and payment services. The company’s offerings are derived from a number of acquisitions including Illuminet Holdings Inc., H.O. Systems Inc. and others. VeriSign’s new branding effort is a way to mix all of its acquisitions and businesses under one brand.
Specifically, VeriSign today announced new services including prepaid, postpaid and Internet billing, expanded text and multimedia messaging services and roaming between wireless wide area and local area networks. The offerings will allow businesses to send text alerts to employees, rival carriers to exchange MMS messages and users to automatically provision their wireless services.
“The major message that people will see … is really this story about VeriSign bringing it all together for content, commerce and communication,” de Silva said.
