Summary Bullets:
- Conventional market dynamics operating in the diameter signaling market have led to a series of acquisitions; independent players are now few and far between.
- Consolidation does not necessarily help operators with multivendor networks and a need for flexible signaling mediation; consolidation may have gone too far.
The title of this blog post is deliberately ambiguous, but you’ll probably guess from the outset that we’re thinking the answer is “yes.” Just this month, Mavenir Systems acquired one of the few remaining independent diameter signaling vendors – Ulticom, Inc. – continuing an acquisition trend that’s been going on for several years (think F5 Networks/Traffix, Oracle/Tekelec, Sonus Networks/Performance Technologies). That’s not to say that Mavenir’s acquisition was a bad move; actually, we think it made a lot of sense. But, as ever, it is conventional market dynamics operating: firstly, a new technology is developed by a large number of smaller players; next, the market becomes “ripe for consolidation;” and then, the bigger fish step in and snap up the smaller ones.
Nothing unusual, you say; the free market doing what it does best. But, is consolidation always good for the market? Continue reading “Has Core Signaling Vendor Consolidation Gone Far Enough?”