GENBAND to acquire Cedar Point, take on 40 percent share in cable VoIP market

Ever-acquisitive GENBAND is adding to its cable portfolio by scarfing up softswitch and applications vendor Cedar Point Communications. Company executives predict that the acquisition will give GENBAND 40-plus percent market share in the steady, albeit unspectacular, cable VoIP space. It will definitely bring major cable players like Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA), Charter Communications (Nasdaq: CHTR), Liberty Global (Nasdaq: LBTYA) and Kabel Deutschland into the Genband customer fold.

While cable voice is a $200-million-a-year business, it's nothing spectacular. The move to all-IP networks, including video and applications, however, has enough upside to push GENBAND further into cable, Mehmet Balos, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of GENBAND told FierceCable.

"This (acquisition) gives us a bigger customer base to market our other products," Balos said, noting that the emerging applications market is a key piece of the equation. Cedar Point has an emerging apps business; GENBAND has a serious R&D and financial focus on it.

Balos said the acquisition, which privately held GENBAND hopes to close by the end of this month, makes his company a "formidable player in the cable market" with the likes of Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO), Ascent and Huawei.

For more:
- see this news release

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