Digital security and mobile content provider VeriSign Inc. said it plans to spend $30 million in cash to acquire software developer CallVision Inc.
Seattle-based CallVision provides Web-based billing and data analysis applications to operators including T-Mobile, Bell Canada, TelstraClear and Australia’s AAPT. The company’s white-label offering for wireless carriers, broadband providers and fixed-line operators is designed to reduce churn, trim customer-care costs and simplify billing issues.
VeriSign, which offers wireless content through its Jamster and Jamba Web portals, hopes to use the acquisition to deliver electronic billing, payment and customer self-care applications to Tier 1 carriers, broadband service providers and mobile virtual network operators.
“This is a trend we’re very much seeing in the market,” said Derek Edwards, CallVision’s chief executive officer. “A lot of the communications carriers have spent time over the years trying to get one back-office solution and haven’t been completely successful with that.”
The transaction is expected to close by April, and earnings from the acquisition “will not be material” to VeriSign’s 2006 financial results, the company said. Investors greeted the news tepidly, as shares of VeriSign nudged upward 2 cents per share following the announcement last Wednesday.
“In terms of general trends in the industry, from the consumer and enterprise demanding more and more, and having higher expectations around what they can do with mobile devices… that places demands on the carriers to be able to support much more complex billing arrangements,” said VeriSign Vice President David Meredith. “We’re going to continue to invest in our suite of solutions to support that.” RCR
