CSG yesterday completed the acquisition of UK-based billing company Intec for $376 million – creating the second largest BSS provider behind Amdocs.
The deal, announced in late September, creates a combined entity with 3,600 staff across 24 countries.
Both firms specialize in billing and customer care software. US-based CSG is focused mostly on the North American cable market while Intec, a British firm, provides wholesale billing and mediation and retail billing software.
Intec VP for APAC Graeme Paynter told Telecom Asia that there was little overlap in product offerings and the geographic focus between the two firms. But the two firms do compete for quad-play deals.
"For us it's business as usual, and we're telling our customers that nothing has changed, except we're part of a bigger force to be reckoned with and we have deeper R&D resources," Paynter said.
Karl Whitelock, director of strategy at Stratecast, said CSG's outsourcing model offered customers served the market well for many years, when everything was a simple post-pay subscription world.
"However, with the advent of always-on, always-available real-time services, CSG could no longer sustain this model as its clients needed more direct access to their customer data in real-time," he said.
Whitelock said CSG needed to get into the real-time, end-to-end revenue management game and expand its market reach to stay competitive.
After a slowdown in M&A in the OSS/BSS space since the global financial crisis in 2008, the sector has seen a pickup in activity this year, with IBM buying OSS specialist Intelliden and Netezza.
Frost & Sullivan's Jayesh Easwaramony expects further consolidation over the next year. “The sad fact of the telecom industry is that we have 83 OSS/BSS vendors – that is too high a number serving one industry.”
CSG's product suite now covers mediation, billing, rating, charging, customer care, web self-service, analytics, interactive messaging, interconnect services, content management and workforce management services.
CSG’s stock rose 34c to $19.16 on Nasdaq Wednesday.
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