Keynote buys Meucci

Keynote, California-headquartered suppliers of telecoms test equipment, have purchased Meucci, Belgian specialists in detecting bypass fraud. The price was not disclosed. You can read the press release here.

Meucci claims to have over 120 ‘active’ customers, making it the market leader in bypass detection. Meucci will become a subsidiary of the Keynote SIGOS division, which was itself created following Keynote’s 2006 purchase of SIGOS, German manufacturers of test call generators. Keynote SIGOS products are currently used by over 350 network operators.

In terms of technology and services, there is a strong overlap between Meucci and Keynote SIGOS, raising the possibility of cost synergies, though the press release states that Meucci customers will continue to be served by the company’s main office in Gent, Belgium. Meucci is the 18th acquisition made by Keynote since 2000. Keynote is owned by Thoma Bravo, a private equity firm, suggesting that the purchase of Meucci is part of a deliberate strategy of consolidating supply of telecoms test equipment. According to its website, the Thoma Bravo investment strategy is to build profitable market leaders by curtailing damaging over-competition:

Thoma Bravo has invested in many fragmented, consolidating industry sectors and has particular expertise in application software, infrastructure software and technology enabled services sectors.

Eric Priezkalns
Eric Priezkalnshttp://revenueprotect.com

Eric is the Editor of Commsrisk. Look here for more about the history of Commsrisk and the role played by Eric.

Eric is also the Chief Executive of the Risk & Assurance Group (RAG), an association of professionals working in risk management and business assurance for communications providers. RAG was founded in 2003 and Eric was appointed CEO in 2016.

Previously Eric was Director of Risk Management for Qatar Telecom and he has worked with Cable & Wireless, T‑Mobile, Sky, Worldcom and other telcos. He was lead author of Revenue Assurance: Expert Opinions for Communications Providers, published by CRC Press.

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