Dialogic: Mobile Video's "Ubiquitous" Future Fueled NMS Acquisition

The IT world is turning its head East today, with news that a major, Montreal-based provider of mobile, video, IP and TDM solutions for network service providers and enterprise communication networks is paying $28 million for a highly regarded communications platforms from a company headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts.

 

Officials at Dialogic (News - Alert) Corporation say the acquisition of the NMS Communications Platforms business – which features open access boards and APIs, including PacketMedia Host Media Processing, and the AG series, TX series, CG series, MG series as well as the Vision family of servers and gateways – will bolster the company’s growth in a critical mobile value-added service market.

 

In an interview with TMCnet today, Dialogic’s vice president of marketing, Jim Machi, said the mobile VAS market is one that’s been good to the company in the past – with applications such as color ringback tones and mobile messaging – and that will serve Dialogic well with video-enhanced VAS and location-based services in the future.

 

“A large part of the Mobile VAS in the ‘first wave’ was deployed in Asia, and was a real engine for innovation,” Machi told TMCnet. “We feel that this next wave of video and 3G enabled VAS will have broader adoption in EMEA, Americas and Latin America.”

 

According to a blog entry today from TMC President and Group Editor-in-Chief Rich Tehrani, the deal comes on the heels of a delisting notice that Dialogic received from the Nasdaq exchange. In a talk with Machi, Tehrani writes, he discovered that the NMS deal is expected to help the companies pool resources and get their products out faster.

 

“Machi told me some of the fastest growing segments of Dialogic’s business are mobile and mobility as well as IP-based products,” Therani writes. “He further explained value-added services such as ringtones and video are seeing nice growth levels as well. On the economy, Machi explained that some customers are nervous and delaying purchases but since the company is broad-based, they haven’t seen severe impact.”

 

Dialogic is one of dozens of IT companies showcasing its wares at next week’s Internet Telephony Conference & Expo in Los Angeles. A gold sponsor of the event, Dialogic has three executives helping to deliver presentations at the three-day show, including Director of Technology Jeff Van Dyke, who is speaking during “Exploring Next-Generation Video Standards” at 1 p.m. on Sept. 18.

 

In his interview with TMCnet, Machi said Dialogic expects mobile to be “ubiquitous” in three to five years – available to most mobile users and included in almost every application that’s used today.

 

“Voice messaging becomes video messaging, ringback tones become video RBT, IVRs become Video IVRs,” Machi said. “The end-user mobile device will also marry much more easily with the Web and be an extension of the Web. We’re actually starting to see that now. In specific applications, whether entertainment based, or more basic communication, video will be used. End-user use of short, low to mid resolution video on the Internet and other mobile devices has been well established. There are bigger use case and adoption questions about broadcast video and point to point video calls – the technology is there, but end-user adoption is on the early end of the curve. We will be watching this carefully.”

 

Meanwhile, NMS Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Bob Schechter said in a prepared statement that his company is pleased with Dialogic’s acquisition.

 

“We believe that Dialogic will be a great supplier of superior technology and innovation to the NMS customer base, including LiveWire Mobile (News - Alert), going forward,” Schechter said.

 

Machi told TMCnet that since the purchase and sale is subject to NMS shareholder approval and may be subject to regulatory approval, the company cannot comment fully at this time on the hiring of NMS workers to Dialogic.

 

“But certainly we would expect to hire NMS employees,” he said.