Mobileum Bought by Private Equity Firm

Mobileum, a leader in the supply of telecoms analytics, risk and security solutions, has announced that HIG Capital will acquire majority ownership of their business, subject to regulatory approval. HIG Capital is a private equity firm that manages USD47bn of equity capital in total. HIG describe themselves as being focused on small and mid-sized companies.

Very few details were provided about the deal, except that current Mobileum owners Audax will retain a minority stake. Neither the value of HIG Capital’s investment nor the proportion of Mobileum they will own was disclosed.

Mobileum says their customers include 35 of 36 global tier 1 telcos and 70 percent of tier 2 telcos across 190 countries. Formerly known as Roamware, Mobileum has bulked up enormously through a series of acquisitions. Anecdotal reports from insiders referred to considerable upheaval as different teams were integrated, staff departed and new employees recruited. Evidently this was part of a strategy to gain scale and make Mobileum more attractive to potential buyers.

Some of Mobileum’s acquisitions since 2018 include:

Mobileum is also pursuing a potentially lucrative deal with the GSMA which would see them become the dominant global provider of information relating to the criminal abuse of telecoms networks. Inside sources say the new Mobileum-GSMA offering is designed to emulate the US call tracing service provided by the USTelecom Industry Traceback Group, but on a worldwide scale.

HIG Managing Directors Timur Akazhanov and Nishant Nayyar said:

We are firm believers in the growing importance of software-driven data analytics and intelligence for the telecom industry to support the monetization of telecom connectivity and enable its next wave of growth. Mobileum is the clear market leader in this space with a best-in-class product platform and is well-positioned at the forefront of emerging technology shifts.

Mobileum CEO Bobby Srinivasan (pictured) said:

HIG has deep and relevant expertise in the sector with a strong track record. Working together, we intend to further Mobileum’s mission to support telecom partners with market leading solutions and capitalize on the growth in the broader telco software sector, including the significant opportunities presented by 5G and private networks.

You can read Mobileum’s announcement here.

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.

Related Articles

Get Our Weekly Newsletter by Email