In February, Tekelec made its second acquisition in the next-generation switching realm, announcing plans to buy Taqua Inc.’s outstanding stock for approximately $85 million in cash, plus the assumption of Taqua’s outstanding options.
“The acquisition of Taqua places Tekelec at the heart of legacy small Class 5 switch migration within the North American independent operating companies and competitive carrier markets,” says Tekelec President and CEO Fred Lax. “Taqua’s switching portfolio also is well-suited for the global carriers replacing or establishing small end-offices with small Class 5 packet switches. Upon completion of the acquisition, Tekelec will have more than 110 next-generation voice switching customers, carrying traffic in Class 4, Class 5, and wireless applications globally, making Tekelec one of the largest suppliers of nextgeneration switching equipment in the world.”
Tekelec, a company best known for its EAGLE intelligent networking signal transfer point widely used in incumbent networks, last year started talking about how it was looking for new ways to pair its signaling technology with next-generation switching. Its first move was the purchase of Santera Systems Inc., a deal closed in June 2003.
Tekelec spokeswoman Joni Brooks says the Santera switch is a Class 4 and 5 solution for 5,000 lines or more while the Taqua switch is a Class 5 solution for the small switch service provider market — 5,000 lines or fewer.
At the time of the acquisition, Santera Systems reported having 20 customers using its products in Class 4 and Class 5 applications.
Taqua has 140 Class 5 packet switch deployments across North America, according to Charlie Vogt, president and CEO of Taqua.
Jody Bennett, Taqua’s vice president of marketing, told xchange the company added 24 new customers in the fourth quarter of 2003 alone; and it almost doubled its revenue from 2002 to 2003, “but every order we got, our guys really had to scrape for because it was not in IOCs’ budgets,” Bennett says. “That’s changing.” Bennett says that more rurals are now setting aside funds for new voice switch initiatives.
