Amdocs to Acquire
Vubiquity to Further Expand into the Media
& Entertainment Business
Deal catapults leading software and services
provider into
premium content delivery for the benefit
of
customers and end users worldwide
Amdocs (NASDAQ: DOX), a leading provider of solutions to communications and media companies, announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Vubiquity, a leading provider of premium content services and technology solutions, subject to customary closing conditions. The two companies are excited about the acquisition with the increased capacity to now deliver enhanced digital content capabilities for network operators, video distributors, OTT companies, content owners and content producers.
The
combination of Vubiquity’s expertise across the content
ecosystem and Amdocs’ proven, scalable solutions enables
customers to quickly improve entertainment offerings and
maximize revenues while gaining increased customer
insights from content consumption. The company is now
uniquely positioned to deliver a set of comprehensive
content offerings so customers can redirect operations,
enable large libraries for global distribution, and
efficiently monetize their
content offerings. With Vubiquity, Amdocs will enhance
its capabilities to deliver an enriched customer
experience, including end-to-end solutions, for rapid
deployment of new communications and media services
worldwide.
“This acquisition uniquely positions Amdocs
at the center of increased convergence across the content
community and video distributors including major OTT
providers,” said Eli Gelman, Amdocs President and CEO.
“Our joint offerings address the media and entertainment
industry’s challenge in balancing the incredible growth of
content and the many ways to consume content with making
programming easier, faster to deliver and ultimately
watch, while also delivering profits.”
“Vubiquity
has successfully been connecting content owners and
distributors across many diverse platforms and evolving
business models at the core of its support to the media
community,” said Vubiquity CEO Darcy Antonellis, who will,
upon completion of the deal, be joining Amdocs as head of
the Amdocs Media Division. “Our capabilities, coupled with
Amdocs’ global scale and rich set of complementary
solutions around monetization, analytics and personalized
customer experience will be truly unique, allowing us to
deliver to a larger set of customers while solving key
industry challenges. This includes helping video
distributors deliver additional profitable offerings, as
well as enabling content owners to focus on content
creation and maximizing licensing revenues.”
Content
has become the cornerstone of a consumers’ connectivity
experience and remains fundamental to the integrated
service provider’s business. Amdocs and Vubiquity can
deliver unparalleled cloud solutions using a modern
modular micro-services architecture across all aspects of
delivery and user experience, including video acquisition,
processing, consumer engagement and monetization.
Vubiquity is a trusted industry player,
based in Los Angeles with the experience of working with
over 600 leading film studios, television networks, and
independent producers. Vubiquity has a large
international footprint in 121 countries and 80 languages
and manages a 150,000+ asset library, providing superior
quality and high volumes of assets for predictable day and
date delivery. These capabilities are of increasing
importance to Amdocs’ 350+ communication and media service
provider partners. Amdocs will showcase its media and
entertainment solutions next month at its booth at Mobile
World Congress in Barcelona.
The impact of the acquisition on Amdocs’
diluted non-GAAP earnings per share is expected to be
neutral in fiscal year 2018, and accretive thereafter. The
impact on diluted GAAP EPS will not be known until after
Amdocs completes the purchase price allocation. Amdocs
expects to incur acquisition-related expenses related to
operating adjustments, restructuring charges and other
acquisition-related costs. The Boards of Directors of
Vubiquity and Amdocs have approved the transaction for
approximately $224 million in cash which, subject to the
satisfaction of the conditions to closing, is expected to
be completed before the end of Q2 of FY2018.
Source: Amdocs media announcement