Servion acquires California-based firm

Servion Global Solutions, a player in communications software, has announced the acquisition of California-based 5by5 Networks, a technology company, for an undisclosed amount.

The all-cash deal is expected to be funded partly through internal accruals and from the money raised through its private equity by TDA, a venture capitalist.

5by5 Networks, owned by venture capitalists, has developed next-generation contact centre technologies by harnessing the power of technologies like internet protocol (IP), SIP for managing and routing telephone calls (PSTN and VoIP), e-mail, faxes, SMS and chat.

Addressing a press conference, K Balakrishnan, MD and CEO, Servion Global Solutions, said "The technologies developed by 5by5 Networks was the major reason for acquiring the company."

If Servion were to develop these technologies, it will take close to three years. By this acquisition, the company would scale up its capabilities of new products to new markets faster, he added.

Venture capitalists Athenian Venture Partners and GMG Capital Partners have invested $22.5 million in 5by5 Networks and the company has so far invested about Rs 90 crore in R&D.

It is interesting to note that the cost of the deal is less than the investment made by the two venture capitalists. Servion Global's total turnover is Rs 70 crore. Servion will take in the 10-member team of 5by5 Networks and merge the entity with itself.

The chennai-based company also plans to go in for an initial public offer by the end of 2006-07 before which it would have another round of venture capitalist funding, he added.

Servion provides services from application maintenance to consulting, research and development and offers solutions that encompass multimedia contact centres, computer telephony integration.

It also provides self-service channels such as interactive voice response, speech recognition, outbound interactions in dialers, multimedia alert notifications, call back manager, work force management software, process management solution and customer relations management.