Irish tech firm Openet acquired in $180m deal to tap into 5G networks

24 Jul 2020

Image: © kinwun/Stock.adobe.com

Openet, a developer of 5G and cloud technologies, is being snapped up by US communications player Amdocs.

Two decades after its founding, Irish telecoms and 5G network manager Openet has announced it will be acquired by Amdocs in a $180m deal that’s expected to be completed by the end of the fourth quarter this year.

Amdocs is a multinational company with 25,000 employees, developing software and services for the telecommunications and media industries. In the fiscal year 2019, the US firm generated revenue of $4.1bn.

Headquartered in Ireland, Openet also has offices in the US, Malaysia and Brazil. It has been generating $70m in revenue per year in the past two calendar years. The Irish company was advised on the sale by Capnua and Arthur Cox.

“In recent years, we have built new 5G products which are recognised worldwide for their innovation and modern, open, cloud-native architecture,” said Joe Hogan, Openet founder and CTO.  “We all look forward to the combined technology strengths of Openet and Amdocs, creating new opportunities for service providers at this exciting time of 5G adoption.”

‘Significant and widespread opportunities’

Openet’s CEO, Niall Norton, added that the resources of Amdocs will “bring significant and widespread opportunities across each of our disciplines”.

Shuky Sheffer, president and CEO of Amdocs, cited Openet’s 5G developments as a reason behind the acquisition.

“We are delighted the innovative Openet team is joining Amdocs. They bring world-class cloud-native capabilities, network pedigree, and deep 5G charging, policy and data management expertise,” he said.

“The Openet solutions complement our portfolio and this acquisition is part of our mission to accelerate the industry’s move to the cloud.”

The Irish company has previously secured lucrative deals with major tech companies, such as earlier this month when it signed a partnership with Salesforce for a new digital offering on Salesforce AppExchange. At Mobile World Congress 2019, it signed a major 5G partnership with Samsung.

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com