Proximus Group to Acquire Route Mobile

There was a bit of inorganic activity in the global Communication Platform as a Service space today. Belgium-based Proximus Group has agreed to acquire a majority stake in India-based Route Mobile, making its second significant investment in the space alongside US-based Telesign. Proximus plans to merge the CPaaS and digital identity capabilities of the two into a global powerhouse.

Proximus Opal, the subsidiary of Proximus Group that already owns Telesign, will become owner of a 58% interest in Route Mobile. Meanwhile, some of the founding shareholders of Route Mobile will re-invest in Proximus Opal. The majority stake will trigger a mandatory takeover event according to Indian regulations.

Route Mobile has a presence not just in India but in APAC, Africa, and Latin America, while Telesign has focused on Europe and North America. Combined the two do about EUR 900M in revenue. With two complementary technology bases in adjacent territories, Proximus sees a path to revenue synergies as each is expanded into new territory.

The rise of the cloud in the communications space is making common infrastructure easier to build and maintain on a global basis, enabling nextgen service providers to cross borders more easily, at least when going OTT.  That enables new consolidation paths like this, at least in theory.  The proof is in the integration of course.

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Categories: Cloud Computing · Mergers and Acquisitions · Security · Unified Communications