VeriSign sells off mobile messaging business
Syniverse snaps up unwanted division.
By Stephen Lawson | Published: 08:19, 26 August 2009
Mobile infrastructure vendor Syniverse is to acquire the mobile messaging business of VeriSign.
The acquisition, valued about $175(£107) million. will include VeriSign products that help mobile operators deliver SMS and MMS messages, provide picture messaging applications and deliver third-party content, as well as tools for enterprises to automatically send messages to employees, customers and partners.
VeriSign started out as an SSL certification authority and branched out into managing Internet DNS infrastructure by buying Network Solutions in 2000. In the middle of this decade it began to acquire mobile operator infrastructure companies in hopes of cashing in on the growth of mobile services. But by late 2007, the company said it would divest its non-core businesses, including the mobile messaging products.
Syniverse plans to bring on most of the 300 employees from the VeriSign unit, most of them in the US. and the Asia-Pacific region, including more than 100 in India, the company said. There is some overlap between Syniverse and VeriSign's inter-carrier message gateway businesses, but VeriSign's PictureMail, Premium Messaging Gateway and Mobile Enterprise Solutions product lines will bring Syniverse into new markets, said Syniverse spokeswoman Diane Rose.
