PALO ALTO, Calif. - (Business Wire) Aricent, a global innovation, technology and outsourcing company focused exclusively on the communications industry, today announced the signing of definitive agreements for new funding from existing investor KKR and a new investor, based in Bahrain, The Family Office. Aricent plans to use the investment capital to accelerate the momentum of engagements with leading infrastructure, application and service providers worldwide, as well as expand the company
’s business activities in the Middle East.
"We continue to see strong validation that our combination of innovation, technology and communications domain expertise is a strong match for today’s strategic sourcing requirements,” said Sanjay Dhawan, president and COO of Aricent. "We wanted to take advantage of our momentum by strengthening our balance sheet as the company continues to outpace the market in terms of growth and new customer acquisition. In an environment where many incumbent players are still taking the “mile-wide-inch deep" approach, we are pleased to continue to invest in helping our customers deploy innovative solutions, laser-focused on the communications industry."
James H. Greene, member of KKR added, “In 2007, we invested in and partnered with Aricent to help make a world class company even better. Today’s announcement builds on the company’s strong results, providing Aricent with additional capital to continue to grow.”
Aricent achieved record business results in its Q1 FY ‘09 quarter, including:
- The highest quarterly revenue in the company’s history at an annualized run rate of more than $470M;
- Signing 49 new customers, another quarterly record;
- The highest operating income in the company’s history;
- Worldwide launch of the award-winning Celltop, a mobile client framework that enables the delivery of next-generation content, commerce and communication services.
Gartner forecasts the global market for outsourcing will exceed $1 trillion in 20121. “The global market for Telecom Operations and Management Systems alone will grow steadily, from $74.6 billion in 2008 to $96.8 billion in 2012,”2 stated Kamlesh Bhatia, Principle Research Analyst, Gartner, Inc. “We expect to see vendors begin to take a more vertical approach to address this multi-billion dollar market. Customers too are increasingly considering domain expertise and innovation in their buying criteria along with traditional implementation cost considerations”.
To learn more about Aricent, please refer to http://www.aricent.com.
Notes
1) Gartner, Inc. “Outsourcing Worldwide, Forecast Database”, by Kathryn Hale, Robert De Souza, Robert H. Brown, Kurt Potter, and by Norbert J. Scholz, Kamlesh Bhatia and Chiaki Morikawa, June 25, 2008.
2) Gartner, Inc. “Forecast: Telecom Operations Management Systems, Worldwide, 2006-2012” by Norbert J. Scholz, Kamlesh Bhatia and Martina Kurth, July 30, 2008, and “Dataquest Insight: Indian IT Services Vendors Focus on Telecom Operations and Management Systems to Achieve Growth” by Kamlesh Bhatia, August 20, 2008.
Keywords & tags: communications, funding, private company, silicon valley, kkr, sequoia, the family office
About Aricent
Aricent is a global innovation, technology and outsourcing company focused exclusively on communications. Aricent combines the leading innovation capabilities of frog design with unparalleled domain expertise in communications gained as a strategic supplier to the world's foremost infrastructure, application and service providers. The company is owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Sequoia Capital and Flextronics International Ltd. and has more than 550 clients worldwide. For more information, visit www.aricent.com.
About The Family Office
The Family Office Co. BSC (c) is the first significant multi-family office company focused on fulfilling the sophisticated wealth management needs of private and institutional clients in the Arabian Gulf. The firm’s vision is to be the most trusted independent financial advisors in the Gulf region. The Family Office is headquartered in Bahrain, and has an office in London. The firm is licensed and regulated by both the Central Bank of Bahrain and the UK Financial Services Authority. For more information, visit www.tfoco.com.
About KKR
Established in 1976, KKR is a leading global alternative asset manager. The core of the Firm’s franchise is sponsoring and managing funds that make private equity investments in North America, Europe, and Asia. Throughout its history, KKR has brought a long-term investment approach to portfolio companies, focusing on working in partnership with management teams and investing for future competitiveness and growth. Additional funds that KKR sponsors include KKR Private Equity Investors, L.P. (NYSE Euronext Amsterdam: KPE), a permanent capital fund that invests in KKR-identified investments; and two credit strategy funds, KKR Financial (NYSE: KFN) and the KKR Strategic Capital Funds, which make investments in debt transactions. KKR has offices in New York, Menlo Park, San Francisco, Houston, London, Paris, Hong Kong, Beijing, Tokyo and Sydney. More information about KKR is available at: www.kkr.com
# # #
Aricent and Celltop are trademarks of Aricent Inc. in the United States and other jurisdictions. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
For further information on Aricent, its expertise, vision and company milestones, please see: http://www.aricent.com/assets/documents/pdf/aricent_at_a_glance.pdf
Aricent
Trevor Strudley
Tel: +1 650 391 1611
Email: trevor.strudley@aricent.com
or
Americas: Cohn & Wolfe
Chris Lalli
Tel: +1 415 365 8540
Email: chris.lalli@cohnwolfe.com
or
Europe: AxiCom
Paula Muezerie
Tel: +44 208 392 4081
Email: aricent@axicom.com
or
India: Text 100
Shikha Singh Sehrawat
Tel: +91 989 107 1999
Email: shikhas@text100.co.in
