What the heck, what's one more?

For the second time this week Oracle has acquired a company. This time it's Convergin, an Israeli startup, which offers solutions making it easier for communications service providers (CSPs) to manage services for network and application platforms including pre-paid charging. Convergin's products and telco services will complement Oracle's communications suite, which is made up of Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management, Oracle Communications Converged Application Server and Oracle Communications service fulfillment applications.

As a class CSPs have been angling to make the transition from more costly network platforms to delivering more profitable value-added services. Oracle officials believe products from the two companies working in concert can create a single carrier-grade IT platform from which CSPs can launch less expensive service delivery capabilities.


"The goal in having these products work in combination will help accelerate service innovations but at the same time reduce cost and simplify complexity," said Bhaskar Gorti, senior vice president and general manager of Oracle Communications, said in a prepared statement.

The Convergin acquisition could fortify Oracle's position in the mobile applications market when used in conjunction with Sun's Java Platform Micro Edition, a popular mobile software development framework.


Oracle's move to acquire the company will further strengthen its hand in mobile applications. By purchasing Sun Microsystems, it gained Java Platform Micro Edition, a widely used mobile software development framework, as well as JavaFX, Sun's rich Internet application (RIA) toolset for building applications across multiple devices.

Two of Convergin's customers include T-Mobile and SaskTel.

Oracle officials said they expect the deal to be approved by the end of June. They declined to offer any financial details of the transaction.