Koch Equity Development is buying the Swedish vendor’s majority stake
Ericsson is selling its majority stake in iconectiv, its number portability and digital identity business, to Koch Equity Development. It expects to make for SEK10.6 ($1 billion/€921million) in cash from the deal.
iconectiv is based in New Jersey in the US and the Swedish vendor became the owner of it as part of the acquisition of Telcordia back in 2012.
Francisco Partners acquired just short of a 17% stake in 2017 for $200 million which valued the business then at about $1.2 billion.
Subject to the usual regulatory approvals, the parties expect that the transaction to be finalised in the first half of next year.
On announcing the divestment, Ericsson issued a statement saying, “iconectiv serves over 5,000 customers across various sectors as a leading provider in number portability solutions, and a provider of core network and operations management, numbering and data exchange services as its main segments, and with limited strategic synergies with the rest of Ericsson’s portfolio.”