All cash deal will further consolidate the OSS/BSS space, providing better value to clients

Bangalore 11 April 2007: Sobha Renaissance Information Technology (SRIT) today announced a definitive agreement to acquire Objective Systems Integrators, Inc.(OSI) - a global supplier of Telecom Operations Support Systems (OSS) - from Agilent Technologies, a Fortune 500 American corporation. The key factor influencing the decision is the strategic fit with its Telecom BSS business. This is SRIT’s second acquisition in the Telecom space in a span of last one year. SRIT acquired Billing Components AG, a 12 year old German Telecom Business Support Systems (BSS) company, some 11 months ago.

SRIT's customer base will now increase to about 150 clients including a number of telecom operators from the top 50 global telecom operators with this acquisition. SRIT's asset purchase will include the renowned and proven NETeXPERT (NX) suite of products currently deployed at Tier-1 service providers globally. NETeXPERT framework-based solutions are deployed in mission-critical operations to provide and assure triple- and quad-play services and customers.

Mr. PNC Menon, Founder and Chairman of the Sobha Group stated, “Agilent’s OSI is a great fit with SRIT’s Telecom strategy and would clearly position us as a leading provider of OSS & BSS solutions for current and next generation communications service providers. This acquisition will ensure that SRIT is able to assist the Communication Service Providers to bring new services to market quickly and provide a revenue stream to leverage the huge network investments that
Telecom companies make.”

Dr. Madhu Nambiar, SRIT's Co-Founder and CEO further added, "In OSI, SRIT will acquire a partner with a solid OSS platform. OSI’s NETeXPERT is one of the strongest brands for service assurance and fulfillment. The focus of the deal is clearly integration. Given the customer overlap between BSS and OSS, the deal combines SRIT’s Telecom BSS product line with OSI’s NETeXPERT Unified Management Architecture Platform for service assurance, fulfillment and usage data analysis. This acquisition will allow SRIT to substantially expand not only its product portfolio but also its addressable market. The current $ 2.5 billion market for OSS solutions is
expected to grow to $ 5 billion by 2010. OSS/BSS solutions for the communications industry constitute an important component of the overall communications infrastructure sector. SRIT was founded on the belief that there was a strong need for a properly proportioned, India-based multinational resource to meet the ever-growing telecoms OSS, BSS, software development and business process outsourcing needs of its global clients. The combination of Agilent's OSI Telecom OSS Division and our German BSS Solutions will offer clients these comprehensive services, with a footprint in all geographies, to provide better value to clients.”

Karl Whitelock, a Senior Consulting Analyst for Stratecast - a division of Frost & Sullivan commented, “In today’s marketplace, it is all about focusing on the customer and in providing subscribers with the communications services they want at Internet speed. While not a new problem, integrating systems to support critical business processes such as ‘Service Concept to Revenue to Manage,’ is essential for Communications Service Providers (CSP) to truly offer ‘lifestyle services’ in a world where subscribers want much more than simple voice-based capabilities. The market is in dire need of solutions that can address such problems in a timely and cost-effective manner.”

Susil J. Tharian, a member of the core management team at Sobha Renaissance said, “With this  acquisition, SRIT will enter into the Fulfillment and Assurance Segments. The transaction would become revenue and profit accretive from fiscal 2007-08. We also expect the acquisition to generate significant goodwill, other intangibles and in-process R&D.” Mr.Tharian, while declining a specific number, said that the all-cash deal was significant. The SRIT team in Roseville, California, expects to complete the transition process by the end of May 2007. SRIT has also announced appointment of Hamish Butler as the CEO of OSI. Hamish is currently
the General Manager for the NETeXPERT business within Agilent. Additionally, SRIT has secured the services of Randy Custeau as OSI’s Vice President for Sales & Marketing. Randy is currently the Strategic Marketing Manager for Agilent’s Assurance Solutions Division. Between Hamish and Randy, they bring in over 30 years of experience in the Telecommunications and OSS space, having worked with Hewlett Packard, Agilent and OSI. “Both Hamish and Randy have also been inducted as members of the OSI Board”, said Dr. Madhu Nambiar.

The expanded SRIT will reorganize itself into five distinct strategic business units (SBUs) - OSI Telecoms OSS Group, BC Telecoms BSS Group, Integrated HealthCare Group, ODC Group and Enterprise Solutions Group.

Industry leading publication “The OSS Observer”, in its March 2007 edition, has reported that M&A activity has changed the competitive landscape in the Telecoms OSS space by giving large vendors such as IBM a bigger stake. Largely due to its acquisition of Micromuse last year, IBM is now among the top vendors with a 7% market share. This puts IBM just behind HP (9%) and Agilent Technologies (12%). While Spirent, JDSU and Vallent are at 4% each, Alcatel-Lucent and CA are at 3% each. These top eight vendors make up 43% of the service assurance market.The remaining belong to some 30 small vendors or niche vendors with a non-significant share.