Telecom/Media/Internet

Comverse to supply billing solution to European telco

Sources estimate the deal at several tens of millions of dollars.

Comverse Technology (Nasdaq: CMVT) today signed an agreement with European business communications provider COLT Telecom Group S.A (LSE:COLT) to support its postpaid billing for data, voice and managed services for its European customers with Comverse Kenan FX solution.The value of the deal was not disclosed however market sources estimate the deal at several tens of millions of dollars.

TTI - des idiots on vous dit!!!

TTI loses $1.8m

Revenue fell 5% to $11 million.

Roee Bergman 16 Nov 06   16:58

TTI Team Telecom International (Nasdaq: TTIL) lost $1.8 million in the third quarter, according to its financial report, published yesterday. Revenue fell 5%, compared with the corresponding quarter of 2005, to $11 million. The company’s operating loss was $2.3 million, in line with its guidance announced at the end of the third quarter.

TTI has undertaken a number of measures in recent months to reduce its cost structure. These include a 10% cut in its workforce.

Go Networks Offering Smart/Multi-Antenna+Mesh

The CTIA Wireless 2006 show in Las Vegas features the debut of a new player in the equipment market for municipal/citywide Wi-Fi access. Go Networks of Mountain View, California is using the show to debut its Metro Broadband Wireless (MBW) system, which it calls a "carrier-class cellular Wi-Fi system."

Yuval Mor, the company's Vice President of Marketing, says the goal goes beyond the usual triple play of data, voice and video by adding mobility (he calls it the quadruple play), all using standards-based equipment so client systems with Wi-Fi don't need any special changes.

To get its cellular-like approach, the MBW will consist of roof- or tower-mounted micro base stations with panel antennas offering 120-degree coverage and smaller pico cells to fill in coverage gaps at street level. The pico cells can form a mesh network using the 5GHz 802.11a for backhaul connections.

The MBW 2100 WLAN Sector Base Station (WLS) uses beam-forming with smart antennas through a technology they call xRF. The company thinks this phased-array technique is not only necessary to get better range and capacity, but that it gives a competitive advantage when a body like the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) "is giving special release to devices with smart antennas because of the fact that the devices are better neighbors," says Mor.

Controlling the WLS with the MBW 1000 WLAN Pico Base Station (WLP) and connecting it to a carrier's backbone is a Go Networks MBW Wireless Network Controller (WNC). It "acts as the communications device between the wireless and the carrier network, interfacing with billing, OSS and so on," says Mor. The company will also offer a Wireless Media Gateway to serve as the customer premises unit (CPE) extending coverage to the indoors.

Another technology that the company calls xCell is present on the system for optimization of both network and radio frequency (RF) settings and routing, everything from load-balancing to Wi-Fi quality of service (QoS) for voice and video.

"We'll offer carriers a complete endpoint solution on the access side," says Mor. "This is built toward carrier requirements."

With the talk of beam-forming and phased-array antennas in the base station, Go Networks' WLS product sounds a bit like Vivato's products, and that company went under last year. What's different? "We all benefit from the precedents they set and the special ruling [from FCC] I mentioned," says Mor. "Our panel is a third of the price and a fourth of the weight of the Vivato. What killed them was the cost structure."

Go is staging trials in Europe and Asia right now in small cities and campuses — they've got a trial in place with the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications — with plans to build a "level of confidence" in the product before going after big city opportunities. No pricing structure is set yet, but Mor says the cost should be, per square mile, 20 to 30 percent lower than other citywide Wi-Fi solutions currently available.

Go is a member of both the Wi-Fi Alliance and the WiMax Forum, and has plans to work with Mobile WiMax (802.16e) in the future.

PortAuthority Technologies to be acquired by Websense for $90 million

Israeli startup PortAuthority Technologies will be taken over by Websense for approximately $90 million in cash. PortAuthority Technologies was founded in 2000, and currently has 60 employees.

PortAuthority Technologies, which provides solutions for Information Leak Prevention, has been a partner with Websense since September 2006, when the two firms signed an OEM technology alliance to deliver comprehensive security solutions

Websense markets a malicious content identification and categorization technology. The combined product offering will allow organizations to manage how confidential data is permitted to leave an organization and under what circumstances.PortAuthority Technologies has raised $40 million from venture capital firms including Sequoia Capital and Greylock Partners. The last fundraising round, in 2002, raised $4 million.

"Websense is committed to maintaining PortAuthority's research and development presence in Israel and retaining the engineering talent responsible for this innovative technology," said Websense CEO Gene Hodges. The closing of the merger is subject to standard closing conditions and is expected to close in January 2007.

NextWave Wireless to Acquire Israeli Co GO Networks

NextWave Wireless Inc. announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire GO Networks Inc., a privately-held company headquartered in Mountain View, CA with research and development facilities in Tel Aviv, Israel. GO Networks develops advanced mobile Wi-Fi network solutions for service providers looking to deploy campus and municipal Wi-Fi systems with carrier- class quality, coverage, capacity and performance.

GO Networks’ Metro Broadband Wireless (MBW) system is a highly-scalable Wi-Fi network solution optimized to deliver cost-effective, next-generation mobile data, voice, and multimedia services. Utilizing xRF(TM) technology, a proprietary adaptive beamforming antenna engine, and an innovative, self- organizing and multi-frequency mesh architecture, GO’s MBW solution is designed to deliver exceptional network performance and operating economics.

“NextWave is making excellent progress in developing their next-generation WiMAX chipsets, network components and other key elements of their innovative, end-to-end wireless broadband system. We are very excited about the opportunity to integrate technologies developed by GO Networks into NextWave’s solution and look forward to working with their Network Services Group to offer highly-competitive Wi-Fi and WiMAX-based solutions to our customers worldwide,” said Oz Leave, Chief Executive Officer and President of GO Networks.

Under the terms of the agreement, NextWave will pay approximately $13.3 million in cash at closing. Additional consideration of up to $25.7 million will be paid in NextWave common stock, based on the achievement of certain operational milestones in the 18 month period subsequent to the closing of the acquisition, as specified in the agreement. NextWave will also assume GO’s existing obligations totaling approximately $7.46 million, of which $1.33 million will be paid at closing and the balance will remain in place following the merger. The acquisition of GO Networks, which will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of NextWave Wireless, is subject to various standard closing conditions and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2007.

Deutsche Telekom T-Com and ClickSoftware announce Major Milestone

ClickSoftware Technologies Ltd. (NasdaqCM: CKSW), a leading provider of
workforce and service optimization solutions, today announced that a
significant milestone had been reached at one of its largest customers.

    T-Com, a division of Deutsche Telekom AG, has successfully deployed
ClickSoftware’s optimized scheduling solution to over 26,000 field
technicians across the whole of Germany. These technicians are responsible
for a wide spectrum of field activity ranging from short term, residential
break/fix and installations to longer term, complex projects around network
and infrastructure maintenance.

    “Through the help and expertise of ClickSoftware we managed to adapt
the system to the work flows and large variety of procedures required in
the different regions and groups with all the different skills and
challenges,” commented Klaus Schmitt, Vice President, Systems Integration
at T-Systems.

    In line with Deutsche Telekom’s strategic focus on optimum customer
support and customer loyalty, ClickSoftware is enabling T-Com to improve
the efficiency of its field service operation and response time to customer
service requests. The enterprise-wide workforce optimization solution has
provided T-Com with a centralized scheduling and dispatching process,
giving the organization greater control and visibility over their business.

The system intelligently schedules jobs based on a variety of user-defined
parameters, such as customer availability, engineer skills, territory,
availability and priority of the job. T-Com and its customers are now
benefiting from reliable appointment slots, reduction in the total mileage
traveled, reduction in overtime and ensuring they have the resources to
complete the service calls.

    “The successful deployment of ClickSchedule at T-Com is a fantastic
testament to the scalability of ClickSoftware’s products,” said Hannan
Carmeli, Chief Operating Officer, ClickSoftware. “We have worked closely
with both T-Com and T-Systems to ensure that all the stakeholders involved
understood and supported this workforce management initiative and we are
delighted to reach this milestone of over 26,000 resources being scheduled
today.”

2007 !!!!! The year of the exits? - Un simple animateur de talents ;-))))

2006 saw a record number of exits, although not all these were successful.

2006 will be remembered as the year in which Israel’s high tech sector saw a record number of exits. This perhaps says more than anything else about the current state of the local technology industry, a sort of never-ending portfolio of companies up for sale. The question is merely how much they will sell for, and when. In 2006, global corporations paid $9.7 billion for local high-tech companies, (excluding Iscar). More than 40 companies were sold and the party looks far from over.

2006 will go down in the history of the state of Israel not just as the year in which there were a record number of exits, but also one in which the industry crossed the Rubicon. The sale of 10-20 start-ups a year could have been passed off as a coincidence, an ephemeral period during which entrepreneurs, employees and investors got lucky. The sale of 45 companies, however, (correct to the time of writing this article), including two that are giants by our standards - M-Systems Flash Disk Pioneers and Mercury Interactive Corp. - has made Israel a country in which the exit has become a natural phenomenon, an integral part of the market here, for better or for worse.

From the vantage point of the buyers, Israel in 2006 looked a real paradise for giant companies looking for new technologies, extensive knowledge and, of course, growth opportunities. Buyout and investment delegations landed in Israel one after the other, all looking for suitable opportunities. 2006 also saw the entry of a number of high-tech giants to Israel, such as Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL), McAfee Inc. (NYSE: MFE), Network Appliance Inc. (Nasdaq: NTAP) , and Xerox Corp (NYSE: XRX), with the clear cut goal of opening local R&D centers through a local acquisition.