Ericsson makes another OSS play

Contact: Scott Denne

Ericsson takes another nip at the OSS/BSS market with its purchase of TimelessMIND. The acquisition of the Canadian provider of operations and billing support systems follows a record year for M&A at Ericsson as the networking equipment vendor battles the maturation of its core business. This is the fifth OSS/BSS supplier that Ericsson has picked up since its $1.2bn reach for Telcordia in mid-2011.

The Swedish carrier equipment vendor inked two such deals last year (MetraTech and GEOSS) on its way to seven acquisitions in the year, tying its personal best. With just 30 employees, though, TimelessMIND is among its smaller transactions. OSS/BSS is one of the categories Ericsson has focused on to extend its offering beyond carrier equipment. The company has stated goals of expanding into media infrastructure and cloud infrastructure. It also made a pair of energy management purchases last year.

Despite the dealmaking (13 announced transactions in the past 24 months), Ericsson isn’t returning to growth. Revenue was flat (in constant currency) at $29bn in 2014 and has been flat for several years. Its North American business declined 8% in the year, led by a slowdown in mobile broadband products. That decline was mitigated by growth in emerging markets and services. As the North American market is a leading indicator for its telecom business, Ericsson has a few more years to eek growth out of those new initiatives.

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Posted in M&A