Amdocs agreed to acquire Cramer Systems, a supplier of operations support systems (OSS) solutions, for approximately $375 million in cash, net of cash on hand, subject to post-closing adjustments.
Amdocs, which provides carrier systems for integrated customer management, said the acquisition would uniquely position it to support large-scale OSS transformation projects. The OSS domain is typically defined as network-facing applications supporting key service fulfillment and service assurance business processes. Cramer has a proven and tested OSS product portfolio, which includes leading products in network resource management (NRM), activation and auto discovery.
Cramer claims more than 80 customers worldwide, including Bell Canada, KPN, TDC, Telefonica, TeliaSonera and Vodafone. Cramer has partnerships with industry leaders including Accenture, Alcatel, Amdocs, Ericsson, HP, IBM, Oracle and SAP.
Cramer will form a new division in Amdocs, which will be the centerpiece of Amdocs' OSS strategy and activities, and will leverage and enhance Amdocs' current assets in BSS and OSS. Cramer's current management will continue to lead the business.
"We are redefining the OSS industry. Service providers are faced with the tripartite challenge of delivering more services at lower cost, managing network transformation and optimizing the customer experience. Amdocs' acquisition of Cramer creates a leading integrated BSS/OSS company, so that for the first time, service providers can get a complete view of the network, the service and the customer, all from one supplier," said Guy Dubois, Cramer's president and chief executive officer."http://www.amdocs.comhttp://www.cramer.com
- In June 2006, Amdocs launched OpenMarket Exchange, a web-based business system that enables media companies to build lucrative, high-growth "direct-to-consumer" (D2C) mobile content businesses. OpenMarket Exchange is a system for digital content transactions designed to improve the profitability of digital content initiatives of both media companies and mobile service providers, as well as minimize the costs and complexity associated with such initiatives. The new exchange will enable "off-network" transactions, in which consumers purchase mobile content directly from media companies using the billing and service relationship with their mobile service provider.
- In April 2006, Amdocs agreed to acquire Qpass, a leading provider of digital commerce software and solutions, for approximately $275 million in cash. Qpass can act as a channel between the content provider and the service provider, helping to determine how to offer, manage, charge, and fulfill for the service. It plays a key role in enabling the value chain and monetizing digital content.
- In March 2006, Amdocs and Cramer signed a letter of intent to deliver an operations support systems (OSS) solution to service providers that integrates the Cramer6 OSS Suite with the Amdocs ordering and service management solutions. The combined offering targeted the crucial automated link between front-office customer management and back-office network and service management, unifying service ordering, provisioning, activation and assurance across all products and lines of business.
- In August 2005, Alcatel and Amdocs agreed to collaborate to address the requirements of communications service providers planning to deploy IPTV and other next generation broadband IP services. Through this arrangement, the two companies will work to deliver a joint end-to-end solution that supports triple play bundles of voice, data and video services. The companies will integrate the Amdocs IP Convergence Solution for IPTV with Alcatel's broad suite of IPTV offerings.
- In May 2005, SBC Communications awarded a multi-million dollar, multi-year contract to Amdocs to provide its customer lifecycle management solutions for Project Lightspeed. The Amdocs IP Convergence solution is based on the Amdocs billing, customer relationship management (CRM), ordering and payment mediation products, combined with Amdocs consulting and systems integration services. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Windstream serves approximately 3.4 million access lines and offers voice, broadband and digital TV services in 16 states. The company has 8,000 employees and about $3.4 billion in annual revenues. Windstream is based in Little Rock, Arkansas. Windstream's common stock is trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol WIN. 
