Cavendish advises on the sale of mBalance

Published December 17, 2008

Cavendish Corporate Finance LLP is pleased to announce the sale of mBalance, a leader in the development of SMS infrastructure software and messaging solutions, to Tekelec (NASDAQ: TKLC) for a total consideration of up to \x8042 million.

mBalance is an award winning software developer headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Supplying telecom operators across the globe, mBalance develops high quality message routing products for mobile networks. mBalance's software enables mobile operators to efficiently support their text messaging growth with a high-performance, networked messaging solution. The product set also provides mission critical SMS routing, security and storage functionality for its clients.

The acquisition of mBalance by Tekelec, a global leader in signalling and session control, core multimedia session control and network intelligence, will see mBalance become a cornerstone for its SMS solutions division and widen the product offering for its clients.

The transaction was led by Cavendish partner Raymond Fagan, supported by associate director John Farrugia.

Commenting on the deal Raymond Fagan said:

"We are very pleased with the closing of this transaction with Tekelec which was achieved at attractive revenue and profit multiple. The key to the deal was leveraging the partnership that had been built between mBalance and Tekelec over many years. The deal achieved all the objectives given to us by the shareholders. Tekelec provides an excellent platform for continued growth and development of new products and additional opportunity for the staff of mBalance within the enlarged organisation.

Following closely on from our recent transaction closed with US private equity group OpenGate, it again demonstrates Cavendish's international deal closing capabilities and its particular expertise in the technology sector. We see further opportunities for achieving successful exits in particular sectors of the technology landscape over the coming months.

Our international reach and sector expertise means our clients can be confident that we have a deep understanding of the valuation drivers for businesses in the sector and, more importantly,, that we can close deals even in the difficult current market conditions."