Mobile instant messaging company fring Ltd. has been acquired by US multimedia and cloud communications company GENBAND. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed but sources believe it was for about $50 million.
fring has developed Over-the-Top (OTT) mobile IP communications services, which work on all major smartphone platforms. GENBAND said that the acquisition of fring's consumer multimedia IP communications solutions expands GENBAND's cloud portfolio for the consumer market.
Based in Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv, fring's solutions are particularly valuable for fixed service providers and MSOs, providing them with an easy entry into OTT mobile communications services. Since its founding in 2005 as a spin-off from UsefulApp Ltd. by former CEO Avi Shechter and two partners, the company has raised tens of millions of dollars mainly from Pitango Venture Capital, Veritas Venture Partners , North Bridge Venture Partners, and Venfin.
GENBAND CEO David Walsh said, "fring is one of the pioneers that helped change the way consumers communicate on-the-go and is perfectly aligned with our strategy to bring service providers rich, simple-to-use, mobile communications solutions. The fring team and technology enhance our ability to serve our customer base of over 700 service providers around-the-world, fortifying them with a proven platform they can white-label to bring their own brand of OTT services to subscribers. We look forward to leveraging the full potential of fring's OTT solutions in the marketplace by pairing them with GENBAND's cutting-edge cloud and WebRTC offerings."
Former fring CEO Roy Timor-Rousso currently a senior executive in GENBAND's multimedia business unit said, "Combining fring's solutions with GENBAND's global reach, engineering expertise and complementary cloud service offerings changes the game for service providers. After early successes licensing our solutions to a number of wireless and other carriers, we recognize the power of combining with GENBAND."
fring's commercially hardened cloud-based OTT services are easily tailored to service providers' needs, allowing them to deploy advanced IP communications services with limited effort and low risk. The fring white-label solution for the consumer OTT market segment complements GENBAND's NUVIA white-label Unified Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS) offering.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 12, 2013
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