Genband acquiring Tekelec switching biz

Somehow, Charlie Vogt’s career keeps intersecting with Tekelec, only this time Tekelec is coming to Vogt. Genband, the Plano, Tex.-based vendor of which Vogt is CEO, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Tekelec’s switching business unit.

Before taking the reigns at Genband in late 2004, Vogt had been CEO of Taqua, which was acquired by Tekelec earlier that same year as Morrisville, N.C.-based Tekelec was trying to build a richer IP switching and signaling porfolio. During his short stay at Tekelec after the close of the Taqua, Vogt convinced the Tekelec to acquire Vocaldata as part of the budding IP strategy. Also, prior to Taqua, Vogt had been at Santera, which also was later acquired by Tekelec during the same acquisition binge. Now, Genband is moving to buy a business unit that includes the former product assets of Taqua, Vocaldata and Santera.

“You could say I’m intimately aware of all of the pieces of this business,” Vogt told Telephony this morning. He said several companies competed for the right to acquire Tekelec’s switching business, but that most of them wanted to buy just one of the three pieces, while Genband wanted to buy the whole thing. Rumors of a deal had been circulating the last few days, and it was widely known that Tekelec had been looking to sell the business.

Vogt declined to discussed the specific price on the deal, but he said Genband is paying Tekelec $1 million, while Tekelec is paying the costs related to an $18 million to $20 million restructuring, and Tekelec also is getting a 19.9% ownership in the new company. “Tekelec poured a lot of money into R&D, so we’ll benefit from that,” he said. “I think Tekelec would admit they did just about everything you could do wrong. The division wasn’t making money and they couldn’t be as focused on it as they need to make it profitable.”

Vogt believes Genband can make it work because the company now has a complete IP gateway and signaling portfolio that is softswitch-agnostic and call-control agnostic. He said Genband will be integrating the new assets over the next six to nine months, and that the company will entertain thoughts of going public over the next year or so.