32 Facts About Comverse Technology

Comverse Technology, Inc, often referred to as simply Comverse, was a technology company located in Woodbury, New York in the United States, that developed and marketed telecommunications software.

Comverse Technology focused on providing value-added services to telecommunication service providers, in particular to mobile network operators.

Comverse Technology had multiple subsidiaries, many of which are still in business.

In 1986 Comverse Technology went public on the Nasdaq Stock Market with a $20 million valuation; the company used the money so gained as its final round of funding.

Comverse Technology was a penny stock on the edge of collapse.

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In 1990, Comverse Technology won a potentially $10 million contract, its largest yet, to deliver computers running voicemail and fax applications on West German cellular networks, beating out far larger corporations in the process.

Comverse Technology sought a variety of other markets, including developing countries such as Mexico and China for its Trilogue virtual telephone service.

Comverse Technology became a market leader in voice messaging software and boomed during the late 1990s with the surge in mobile phone use.

Comverse Technology expanded this application into a full-blown short message service center, which receives, buffers, processes, and dispatches all SMS messages throughout a mobile network.

Comverse Technology branded and productised this as the Intelligent Short Message Service Center, or ISMSC.

Comverse Technology's ISMSC found success as a lower-price solution for lower-traffic networks, where it competed with Logica's Telepath solution.

Comverse Technology became a participant in forming international wireless standards, such as in 2001 for the Speech Application Language Tags markup language for XML to add voice capabilities to web-based applications.

Additional industry standards groups in which Comverse Technology has been active include the Open Mobile Alliance and TM Forum.

Comverse Technology acquired one of its key rivals, Boston Technology, for $843 million in stock in 1997.

Comverse Technology was able to raise money several times on Nasdaq, including once for its Ulticom subsidiary and once shortly before the Dot-com bubble burst.

Comverse Technology was one of the most prominent success stories in Israel's hi-tech industry, with both Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post referring to it as a flagship of that industry.

Comverse Technology became known, as Bloomberg News later stated, as "the wizard of Israel's technology boom"; his oft-stated goal was for Comverse to do for Israel what Nokia had done for Finland.

Comverse Technology was one of the largest employers of software engineers in Israel and its stock was widely held among the Israeli investing public; as a consequence, the successes and failures of Comverse Technology were always followed closely in the country's financial press.

Comverse Technology's management was criticized by analysts for having issued over-optimistic forecasts, although many other Israeli firms in the industry did even worse or failed completely during this period.

In 2002, Comverse Technology Infosys changed its name to Verint, partly to separate its more thriving business from Comverse Technology's struggles, and staged a modestly successful IPO of a minority portion of its stock.

The accusations against the three included the backdating of options to when Comverse Technology stock had been trading at low prices, the use of fake names of option holders, and the creation of secret funds in which to hold the illicit gains.

Comverse Technology was released on bail and engaged in a long battle to avoid extradition to the US .

Comverse Technology reportedly lost considerable money in 2009, and the moves were typical of other hi-tech companies caught in the bad economic environment.

Some of Comverse Technology's products were still viewed highly; a Yankee Group survey ranked them first in the world in their type of billing services, and they were the worldwide market-share leaders in providing multimedia message service centers to wireless carriers.

In early 2010, Comverse Technology planned to release an annual report with full financial statements and return to being fully listed on Nasdaq, but anticipated more layoffs.

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Comverse Technology's restructuring affected its 2006-acquired NetCentrex business unit in France, with layoffs or a shutdown possible.

In October 2010, Comverse Technology agreed to sell its two-thirds ownership of its Ulticom subsidiary to a U S private equity firm for $90 million; the deal closed in December 2010.

Comverse Technology sold part of its holdings in Verint, netting $80 million, and sold for $27 million land in the hi-tech area of Ra'anana, north of Tel Aviv, where it had been planning to build a new headquarters.

In October 2010, Comverse Technology finally published its restated financial reports for fiscal years 2005 through 2008.

Morgan and Barclays said that with its accounting problems largely behind it, some restructuring done, and an improving cash balance and some revenue growth, Comverse Technology was well-positioned for ongoing operations or a possible sale.

Results for fiscal year 2012 for the restructured Comverse Technology, Inc demonstrated a return to profitability, with a net income of $5.

In September 2015 after a merger this new Comverse Technology entity changed its name to Xura, then after a further series of acquisitions and mergers in February 2017 it became part of Mavenir.