Sonus Networks, a global enabler in secure and intelligent cloud communications, has announced the completion of the Sonus and GENBAND mergers following which each became a wholly owned subsidiary of a parent company formed for purposes of the transaction and renamed Sonus Networks, Inc.
In connection with closing the transaction, Sonus Networks also announced that, effective today, it has begun conducting business as Ribbon Communications.
The company will continue to trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker SONS until its new corporate name (Ribbon Communications Inc.) and its new ticker symbol (RBBN) become effective, which is anticipated to be by the end of 2017.
The transaction is a merger of equals and former Sonus and GENBAND shareholders each own approximately 50% of the parent company, which had approximately 102 million shares outstanding post close.
GENBAND’s former equity holders also received a $22.5 million unsecured note as part of the transaction consideration. The transaction is expected to be substantially accretive to the combined company’s earnings per share in 2018. The combined company is expected to realize annual cost synergies of $40 million to $50 million in 2018 and to drive solid cash flow from operations in the first year after closing.
“Today is a tremendous day as we bring together two companies that have been at the forefront of real-time communications into a single, unified entity focused on serving our customers and moving the industry forward,” said Ray Dolan, President and CEO, Ribbon Communications. “Our new name offers a fresh start and embodies our ambition to build one of the largest, most innovative, dedicated and secure global real-time communications organizations on the market. In today’s complexly woven world, we deliver the secure, immersive, contextual experiences that enhance our lives. I’m privileged to lead this new team — together we are stronger than ever and ready to help bring the digital future to life.”
Dolan added, “With humans more connected in so many different ways than ever before, the real-time communications we rely on must become a more comprehensive, engaging, and all-encompassing experience. Additionally, the new Ribbon Communications name reflects the unparalleled suite of real-time communications software solutions that the combined company brings to the market. Ribbon Communications is ready to deliver the flexibility, security and stability that today’s digital life requires, enabling better business outcomes.”
Synergizing a Modern Communications Fabric of Tomorrow
As the world’s largest service providers and enterprises are accelerating the modernization and transformation of their networks, the combined company will be strategically positioned to seize on many of these opportunities and synergize a modern communications fabric of tomorrow.
This combination is ultimately about the growth and customer benefits that can be achieved by bringing two complementary companies together.
The combination enables Ribbon to take its products and solutions to an expanded geographical footprint and reach based on strengths of the two companies in different geographical markets (For example while both companies have a strong customer footprint in the US has Sonus a solid presence in Japan and GENBAND has a strong presence in the Canada, India, Middle East and UK).
Ribbon combines Sonus’ software-based unique positioning in real-time communication virtualization, cloud-based session initiation protocol (SIP) and 4G/voice-over LTE solutions and security initiatives with GENBAND’s network modernization, unified communications, and mobility and embedded communications solutions.
Ribbon will be better positioned to enable worldwide communications service providers and enterprises to transform to IP and cloud-based networks. In addition to the ability to offer a broader, more comprehensive real-time communications product portfolio and deeper global footprint, Ribbon also now has increased ability to invest in growth, and more efficient and effective R&D. Ribbon’s growth initiatives include providing market-leading real time cloud based and security communications solutions.
The Kandy Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) enables service providers and other market participants to embed voice, video, messaging, chat, presence and more into any business process or application, enhancing outcomes for business, consumer and Internet of Things deployments.
In addition, the Kandy CPaaS allows customers to rapidly create new revenue streams for customers/partners. Ribbon’s growth initiatives also include a cloud security and analytics platform for real time flows and digital services.
This security offering provides end-to-end visibility and analytics enabling network-wide flow control, threat detection and mitigation. These combined growth initiatives aim to create the path for customers/partners to quickly and securely launch new real-time communications offerings.
Patrick Joggerst, CMO and EVP Business Development, Ribbon Communications, explained, “This transaction creates a global leader in real-time communications and security solutions and the scale necessary to accelerate growth initiatives to help our customers migrate to fully-virtualized cloud architectures. Delivering critical realtime communications means going beyond speed and security to a more comprehensive, engaging, contextual, all encompassing experience. Embedded real-time communications are helping us become more productive and efficient, but connectivity and security must be tightly threaded in harmony, chain-linking end points with absolute clarity. Our new name reflects this mission and our ambition to continue moving the real-time communications industry forward.”
