Pune-based software product and technology services provider Persistent Systems Ltd (PSI) has agreed to acquire Ireland-based technology firm Aepona Holdings Ltd for an undisclosed amount, according to a stock market disclosure.
PSI, through its California-based subsidiary Persistent Systems Inc, has entered into an agreement with Intel Overseas Funding Corporation to acquire the stock of Aepona Holdings Ltd.
Intel Overseas Funding is part of American chipmaker Intel Corp.
As part of the deal, PSI will also acquire five subsidiaries of Aepona Holdings that come along with its holdings. Also, PSI will acquire certain IP and related rights for Aepona products, which will be managed under Persistent's Accelerite Brand, the statement said.
Cloud-based network solutions company Aepona Holdings and its over 300 employees in Belfast, Dublin, Sri Lanka and the US were acquired by Intel in 2013 for an undisclosed amount.
Aepona lets service providers open up their networks to developers by leveraging cloud service.
It trace its roots directly to Aldiscon, the Dublin, Ireland-based pioneer of text messaging and the first company to market with a commercial SMSC platform. Following the sale of Aldiscon to Logica in the mid-1990s, another company, Apion, was founded, which thrived in the mobile internet/WAP Gateway market before being sold to Openwave in 1999.
Aepona was then founded to capitalise on the nascent market for telecom value added services, launching the world’s first application gateway platform based on the emerging Parlay standards in 2002.
It has grown both organically and through acquisitions. In June 2007, Aepona acquired the Swedish application server vendor Appium, strengthening the company’s product portfolio and customer base. In 2009, Aepona completed the acquisition of Valista, a provider of payments and settlement solutions based in Ireland, bringing revenue management and product merchandising capabilities to the company.
Co-founded by Dublin-based entrepreneur Gilbert Little, it counted Amadeus Capital Partners as its largest venture investor when it was acquired by Intel.
Founded in 1990 by IIT Kharagpur alumnus Anand Deshpande, Persistent develops software solutions in next-generation technology areas, including analytics, Big Data, cloud computing, mobility and social, for the telecommunications, banking & financial services, life sciences and healthcare verticals.
With over 7,000 employees on board, the company has offices and delivery centres across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. In India, it operates out of offices in Bangalore, Nagpur, Goa and Hyderabad.
The firm that counts SAIF Partners as one of its institutional investors recently got an approval to divest its 26 per cent stake in an Indian joint venture Sprint Telecom India Pvt Ltd to foreign partner SoftBank-controlled US telecom major Sprint Nextel Corporation for Rs 1.87 crore ($296,000).
In April 2011, Sprint Nextel entered India through the JV in which it picked 74 per cent stake in line with the FDI norms in the telecom sector back then. With liberalisation, FDI up to 100 per cent is now allowed in Indian telecom companies.
Sprint Telecom India provides national long-distance, international long-distance, internet services and managed network services in India.
