BICS to acquire TeleSign for USD 230 million

Nieuws Algemeen Wereld 25 APR 2017
BICS to acquire TeleSign for USD 230 million
BICS, the wholesale arm of Belgian operator Proximus, announced an agreement to acquire US-based TeleSign for USD 230 million. The takeover gives BICS a new growth area beyond network services, providing authentication and mobile identity services to internet service providers. 

The deal is expected to help diversify the customer base and offer cross-selling opportunities as well as strengthen geographic coverage of the company, particularly growing its position in the Americas. BICS said the merger will create a new end-to-end Communications Platform-as-a-Service offering. 

TeleSign will continue to operate independently as a wholly-owned subsidiary of BICS with the brand name TeleSign, under the continued leadership of CEO Aled Miles. Daniel Kurgan, CEO of BICS, will become the chairman of TeleSign.  

BICS will pay an upfront cash consideration of USD 230 million (on a cash- and debt-free basis) as well as a variable performance-based earn-out consideration. Closing of the transaction is subject to regulatory conditions which are expected to be fulfilled in the third quarter. 

Categories:

Algemeen

Companies:

Proximus,  BICS,  TeleSign

Regions:

Wereld

Tags:

Network Access, Security, Network operations services, Wholesale, M&A buyouts & divestments

Related Articles

JEMEN 25 OCT 2023

Arelion names new CEO

Arelion has announced the appointment of Daniel Kurgan as president and CEO with immediate effect to replace Staffan Goejeryd, who is leaving the company he has led for seven years. Kurgan has already been a board member at Arelion since January 2022 and has over 25 years of experience in the industry, including as CEO of BICS, chairman of TeleSign, chairman of Intercloud and senior advisor at Drake Star. Board chairwoman Eva Elmstedt said that as Arelion enters a new chapter after its completed spin-off fr

BELGIË 1 DEC 2021

Proximus confirms talks on strategic deal for TeleSign

Proximus has confirmed reports it is in exploratory talks about a potential transaction for its subsidiary TeleSign. The US-based company has been fully owned by Proximus since 2017 and is a leading player in mobile digital identity, authentication and secure CPaaS (communication platforms as-a-service) services.

NEDERLAND 8 MAR 2018

KPN closes iBasis chapter - will Proximus follow?

KPN has sold its international wholesale unit iBasis for an undisclosed amount. This is something we predicted some years ago, as iBasis adds little to the Dutch company. It may be a moment for Proximus to think about parting ways with BICS as well. 

WERELD 1 NOV 2017

BICS closes acquisition of TeleSign

BICS, the wholesale arm of Belgian operator Proximus, closed the acquisition of TeleSign, following the 25 April announcement of entering a definitive agreement to acquire the US-based CPaaS company for USD 230 million. BICS said the closing of the acquisition creates the world's first CPaaS provider, bridging the TeleSign cloud communications platform with one of the largest global carriers in the world.

EUROPA 5 SEP 2017

BICS to deploy third fibre route to serve Asian and Mideast traffic

BICS has announced it will deploy a third fibre route between Marseille and Paris, lowering latency and protecting inbound voice and data traffic from Asia and the Middle East. The route is expected to be commercially live by the end of the year. Increasing amounts of traffic from Asian and Middle Eastern countries are entering Europe on a daily basis. 

BELGIË 5 MAY 2017

Proximus revenues remain stable at EUR 1.44 bln in Q1

In the first quarter, Belgian operator Proximus said revenues remained stable at EUR 1.44 billion, compared to EUR 1.43 billion a year ago. On the home market, the company gained revenues of EUR 1.11 billion, up by 3.2 percent. Revenues at BICS (international carrier services) continued to decline to EUR 332 million, down from EUR 376 million (-6.6%). The direct costs increased by 2 percent, suppressing the gross margin to 62.8 percent. The total direct margin came to EUR 902 million in Q1 2016 and to EUR 8

WERELD 20 OCT 2016

BICS launches Voice Roaming Firewall platform

BICS announced the launch of its Voice Roaming Firewall platform, which automatically blocks incidents of voice fraud in roaming for its customers. As a roaming fraud 'prevention' service for mobile operators, the product sits in line with BICS' roaming platform and is designed to provide customers with greater visibility and control on outbound roaming voice traffic. It also enables operators to proactively protect their bottom line by reducing overall instances of fraud. This automated and fully managed s

WERELD 19 JUL 2016

BICS says data roaming tripled across its global network

Global wholesale carrier BICS said data roaming traffic tripled year-on-year across its global network, driven by LTE roaming and the availability of data and mobile broadband services now offered across all regions. With a global reach of 770 mobile networks, BICS now provides roaming hubbing solutions to 170 customers worldwide, which have a total of 1 billion global mobile subscribers.

WERELD 27 MAY 2016

BICS claims to block over 10 mln fraudulent calls in Q1

Global wholesale carrier BICS announced that its FraudGuard fraud prevention platform detected and blocked over 10 million fraudulent call attempts on its customers' networks in the first quarter. The Belgian firm writes that by crowdsourcing details of suspicious network activity across BICS' global customer base, the platform is able to identify and block activity to known fraud destinations. Its comprehensive fraud database now contains over 400,000 numbers around the world associated with criminal activ

WERELD 2 JUL 2014

Telstra buys stake in mobile authentication company TeleSign

Telstra has acquired a stake in US-based mobile authentication company TeleSign. TeleSign provides two-factor authentication via SMS to users on sites such as Google or Faceboo. The company reports it currently has over 3.5 billion accounts in 200 countries. No financial details related to the transaction have been disclosed. However, a spokesperson said that the stake owned by Telstra was not a controlling stake, Delhi Daily News reports.

Just In

19 DEC 16:42

SLT-Mobitel launches 5G network in Sri Lanka

19 DEC 16:19

Dialog Axiata launches 5G network, connects 1.5 million subscribers

19 DEC 15:56

UK govt to ban AI-enabled nudification apps to protect women, girls

19 DEC 15:42

3 UK launches last-minute Christmas sale

Commentary

13:56

Video market set for slower growth ahead

11:38

Netflix buys Warner Bros to deepen content catalogue

11:11

KPN's mixed performance in Q3 raises questions for strategy day

15:26

Stock markets breaking records but what happened to Odido's IPO plans?

Background

01:04

The week in telecom: Wi-Fi bolt-ons take off to boost broadband growth, video market works on consolidation

01:39

The week in telecom: Netflix wins bidding for Warner Bros, Apple poaches new execs, Samsung debuts trifold

13:51

Proximus vs. Telenet: Proximus performs better in Q3 while Telenet uses up cash

14:16

Proximus Domestic still struggling with low margins

Complete profile

Before downloading the whitepaper, we would like to ask you to complete your profile with company and position. After confirming you will receive the white paper.