NEC Grabs NetCracker

NEC is buying NetCracker Technology, an operations support systems (OSS) company based outside of Boston Mass. The reported $300 million deal adds to NEC's portfolio of IMS and UC offerings and is being done with a little more fanfare than last year's purchase of Sphere.

The NetCracker purchase is being called a "strategic acquisition" by NEC in the communications industry, adding OSS software and services to its portfolio of mobile and fixed infrastructure products. NEC sees its communications carrier business as continually expanding and OSS represents a key element to new international growth over the next five years.

NetCracker currently employs approximately 1,000 people worldwide and counts France Telecom, MTS, Sprint, TELUS, and Telstra among its customers.  Upon completion of the purchase, NetCracker will operate as an independent business unit lead by its current management team and NEC is committed to retaining both the relationships and strategies that NetCracker has developed.

NEC's announcement of acquiring NetCracker is significantly different than its quiet announcement of Sphere last year for $42 million. Sphere linked IP PBX functionality into SOA and planned to leverage that into UC.

For more
- NEC purchases NetCracker announcement

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