Avaya today said it will purchase U.K. software
maker Ubiquity Software Corporation plc for $144 million in a bid to improve
the way it supports Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) applications for
customers.
Ubiquity shareholders must accept the offer within 20 business
days of the date that the tender offer document is mailed to them.
SIP
example, a mobile phone and a computer.It’s attractive to telecommunications carriers because it enables VoIP, Web conferencing, instant
messaging and gaming applications — all in a single environment.
Ubiquity makes SIP Application Server (SIP A/S), a Java-based deployment
platform and standards-based application creation environment (ACE) that
allows customers to write such so-called converged communications services.
Ubiquity sells SIP A/S to an array of customers, including fixed and mobile
communications service providers, systems integrators, independent software
vendors and channel partners.
SIP is the protocol spurring the migration away from traditional
circuit-switched networks to Internet-based, converged voice, video and data
services; Yankee Group said it believes the market for SIP application
servers will top $4.7 billion in 2009.
Moreover, the research firm said SIP application servers will be significant
components of Internet
Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), which aggregates communications equipment
from different vendors to make them work as one platform.
Avaya competes with Cisco Systems , Nortel
and Alcatel
among others in the market
for Internet networking gear. All of the vendors are building new products
and services tailored for converged communications.
Networking vendors aren’t the only companies angling for pieces of the SIP
and IMS pie; Oracle and BEA Systems
agree about the viability of SIP and IMS.
BEA two years ago purchased
Incomit, whose assets provided BEA the backbone for its WebLogic
Communications Platform.
A year later, BEA rival Oracle expanded its domain in the space, acquiring HotSip and Net4Call to create a
Service Delivery Platform that enables VoIP, mobile and multimedia
applications.
