Oracle announced Wednesday it is acquiring technology for prepaid telecommunications billing from eServGlobal, boosting its hand in the telecom market.
The deal is expected to close in the second half of this year. Terms were not disclosed. EServGlobal, based in Sydney, will continue as a separate company, focusing on mobile payments and value-added services.
Specifically, Oracle is buying eServGlobal's USP platform, which provides pre-paid charging capabilities, as well as a network services platform and messaging gateway. The software is being used by more than 25 tier-one providers, including Orange and Nextel, according to a statement.
Some 72 percent of all mobile subscribers around the globe use pre-paid services, with particularly high usage in Asia-Pacific, South and Central America, the Middle East and Africa, Oracle said, citing figures from research firm Ovum.
Oracle's own Communications Billing and Revenue Management software will be combined with eServGlobal's technology to create a single software suite for pre- and post-paid billing, Oracle said.
Oracle's move could be seen as a competitive response to rival SAP's pending acquisition of Sybase, which has an array of mobile technologies, including for commerce, messaging, and recharging prepaid accounts.
The deal is the third announced by the always-acquisitive Oracle in recent days. Earlier this week it bought intellectual property assets from marketing automation vendor Market2Lead, and last week said it would purchase database security vendor Secerno.