Friday, September 12, 2008

NMS Communications selling Platforms business for $28M

Framingham wireless technology and application developer NMS Communications Corp. has agreed to sell its NMS Communications Platforms business, which is based on tools and technologies for media signal processing, to Canada-based Dialogic Corp. for $28 million in cash.

The deal, subject to shareholder and other approvals, completes the company’s year-long effort to separate its two main businesses — LiveWire Mobile and NMS Communications Platform. Upon closing of the deal, NMS Communications (Nasdaq: NMSS) will focus 100 percent of its resources on building the LiveWire Mobile business, according to Bob Schechter, NMS Communications’ chairman and CEO.

The deal also comes under the specter of a possible delisting of the company’s stock from the Nasdaq exchange. In late August, NMS Communications received notice from Nasdaq that its common stock had fallen below the minimum bid price of $1 for 30 consecutive days, risking possible removal from the exchange. In accordance with Nasdaq rules, the firm has 180 days to rectify the situation.

NMS Communications makes platforms and applications for wireless service providers, including voice mail, multimedia messaging services and interactive voice response systems. Its communications platforms division focuses on signal processing, media gateways and other technologies, while its LiveWire division is built on the company’s ringback service and other mobile applications. In December of 2007, the company spun out the LiveWire division, and three months later paid $14 million for Bedford mobile music platform provider Groove Mobile Inc. to bolster the group’s application offerings.

As a whole, in 2007 NMS Communications reported $82.5 million in revenue with a $9.3 million loss.