Ericsson buys TUSC for $9.5m, boosts systems integration

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 24 November 2005 16:43

IT Industry - Deals

Ericsson Australia has acquired, for $9.5 million, Australian company TUSC Computer Systems Pty Limited, a subsidiary of ASX-listed Allied Technologies specialising in systems integration for telecommunications, utilities and enterprises.

Ericsson says the acquisition "illustrates Ericsson's ambition to further strengthen and develop its leading position within telecommunications services and the focus areas of systems integration, telecom management and operational support systems (OSS). The TUSC acquisition also allows Ericsson to diversify its customer base into a closely related sector - utilities...Ericsson will benefit from the strong brand name and customer relationships that TUSC has developed over the last 25 years, mainly within the operator and utility industry sector."

Ericsson claims worldwide experience in systems integration with more than 500 network management solutions, over 100 charging solutions as well as over 450 billing, mediation, activation and settlements solutions.

Allied chairman, Michael Addison, said the board's view was that the current market capitalisation of the company substantially undervalued its underlying assets and business operations. "The sale of TUSC represents the first step in a broader strategy designed to narrow this perceived valuation differential and, to this end, the board is reviewing various options to maximise the value of the Group's remaining two businesses [Servicepoint Australia Pty Limited and Allied Technologies Australia Pty Limited (ATA)]."

ATA specialises in the design, integration, installation and maintenance of active and passive communications infrastructure integral to data, voice, and video networks. Servicepoint is a specialist provider of secure and non-secure 3rd-party videoconferencing, video messaging system solutions and the provision of related managed services to government and corporate sectors.