Oracle Corp. opened the week with a US$ 1.7 billion bang by announcing an agreement to acquire IP networking systems specialist Acme Packet Inc. for $ 29.25 per share, a 22 percent premium over Acme’s closing price Friday of $ 23.93.
The deal values Acme Packet at $ 2.1 billion, but Oracle will be shelling out about $ 1.7 billion once the value of Acme’s cash, short-term investments and other assets are taken into account.
The news sent Acme’s share price soaring by 22.4 percent to $ 29.30, slightly above the agreed purchase price.
Acme is the long-term leader in the market for session border controllers (SBCs), which manage IP traffic at the borders of networks (where carrier networks intersect and where carrier networks connect with enterprise networks). It has 1,900 customers and has its technology deployed at 89 of the world’s top 100 communication service providers (CSPs).
That technology will become increasingly important in the mobile world as SBCs play a critical role in the IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) architecture that’s set to be adopted by many major wireless operators as they enable 4G voice services (otherwise known as Voice over LTE) on their networks.