Mergers and Acquisitions, CSPs, Mergers and Acquisitions, Distributed Workforce, Unified communications

Proximus Opal Buys Majority Stake in Route Mobile for $721 Million

Credit: Getty Images

Credit: Getty Images

Proximus Opal, a unit of Belgian telecom service provider Proximus Group, announced it plans to buy an almost 58% stake in cloud communications platform-as-a-service company Route Mobile for 59.22 billion rupees (approximately $721 million).

Per the agreement, the cloud company will pay 1,626.40 rupees per Route Mobile share and Clear Bridge Ventures, an affiliate of some Route Mobile promoters, will buy a minority stake of up to 14.5% in Proximus Opal for about 299.6 million euros (nearly $337 million). Further, according to Indian regulations, Proximus Opal will also have to make an offer to buy an additional stake of up to 26% in Route Mobile at the same price from retail shareholders.

The filing also dictated that Proximus’ stake in Route Mobile may go up to 75%, depending on the outcome of the mandatory takeover offer (MTO). “Total cash consideration for this part of the operation will be determined by the effective MTO take-up,” continued the filing.

Proximus Opal Acquires Majority Stake in India's Route Mobile

Proximus, founded in 1930, is based in Brussels, Belgium. The company has 12,970 employees listed on LinkedIn. Proximus' areas of expertise include telecommunications, internet, telephony, television, ICT, quadruple-play, cloud computing, healthcare, connectivity, entertainment, network, mobility, 4G, fiber, and broadband.

Route Mobile, founded in 2004, is based in Mumbai, India. The company has 525 employees listed on LinkedIn. Route Mobile's areas of expertise include mobile messaging, enterprise messaging, SMS, 2way messaging, mobile engagement, A2P messaging, enterprise messaging platform, SMS hubbing, SMS firewall, voice solutions, API, IVR, OTP passwords, VoIP, chatbots, enterprise email sender, number lookup, CPaaS, omni channel APIs, and digital marketing.

Proximus Opal provides cloud-based telecom platforms for enterprise customers such as Salesforce and TikTok creator Bytedance. The acquisition expands Proximus' reach and paves the way for the company to achieve a billion-dollar annual run rate sooner than the anticipated three-to-four-year timeframe, the company said in a statement.

Rajdip Gupta, Route Mobile’s CEO. Gupta has been selected to lead the combined company.

Sharon Florentine

Sharon is a master technology storyteller and editor with omnichannel experience: books and print magazines, digital, webcast, blogging, podcast, live events and video and associated brand-specific social media content. From 1999 to 2003, she acquired and edited technology books and certification exam prep guides.

After a year spent in publicity and editorial at mass-market book publishers, she returned to tech publishing and, since 2004, explored B2C and B2B news, issues and trends in consumer, lifestyle, software, software development, AI, ML, networks, big data, hardware, security, storage, cloud, equity, inclusion, diversity, women in tech, career development, IT management, H-1B visa issues and immigration, education, training and learning.

Her previous role was as the managing editor at Techstrong Group in charge of Cloud Native Now, DevOps.com, Security Boulevard and Techstrong ITSM and their brand-specific social media. She currently serves as editorial director for CyberRisk Alliance’s channel brands, ChannelE2E and MSSP Alert and acting editorial director for SC Media UK. Drop me a note and let’s talk!

Related

Related Terms

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)

You can skip this ad in 5 seconds