Report: Warburg Pincus, Providence Equity to acquire Telcordia

Following months of speculation about the fate of Telcordia Technologies, the Wall Street Journal is reporting today that the telecom software giant is soon to be acquired by private equity firms Warburg Pincus and Providence Equity Partners for about $1.3 billion.

A deal should be announced within the next few days, the Journal reports its unnamed sources said. A Telcordia representative declined Telephony’s request for comment.

More so than many of the merger and acquisition scenarios imagined by industry members--including absorption into other industry titans such as IBM--an acquisition by a pair of investors may allow Telcordia to retain its own corporate culture and attain, or at least continue to pursue, its own goals of independence and a strong identity.

Telcordia--once Bellcore, the research arm of the regional Bell companies--was spun off and sold to Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) in 1997. The appointment of industry veteran Matt Desch as CEO in 2002 brought new focus and ambition to the company, which has since worked to reinvent itself and establish a strong, independent identity as its owner, SAIC, leaned toward other priorities in the government and security sectors.

Desch confirmed in late September that Telcordia was for sale, arguing that Telcordia had a unique opportunity to take a leadership role in transforming large telecom carrier networks to next-generation technologies.

The anticipated sale of Telcordia is "just another step in our transformation," Desch told Telephony in September.