Sicap acquires Swapcom to strengthen global market position

Sicap and Swapcom have a total of 190 employees and achieve an annual turnover of about CHF 66 million. Sicap is a subsidiary of Swisscom Mobile, Switzerland’s leading mobile communications provider. This deal enables Swisscom to further enhance their activities in a contiguous business area.

The addition of Swapcom technology to the Sicap offer will enable the consolidation of Mobile Device Management, SMS/MMS Hub management and content management. As technologies multiply and mobile devices become increasingly sophisticated, the combined mobile software offering is in line with current trends by operators to converge and consolidate services, and as such it will have a clear competitive advantage in the market.

Sicap was one of the first mobile application providers to emerge. It was founded in 1994 as part of Swiss Telecom PTT and has since independently gained a solid reputation for cost-efficient mobile applications.

Hans Theler, CEO of Sicap, said: “Today’s announcement represents a significant step in our aim to become the leading force in the MDM market. MDM enables operators to drive new revenue opportunities, offers lower operating costs and increases customer satisfaction and loyalty. The acquisition of Swapcom will strengthen our product portfolio which already includes our successful Over-the-Air (OTA), USSD and Charging & Rating offering.”

Swapcom, a private French company funded by Spef Venture, Part’Com (managed by Iris Capital Management) and Banque de Vizille, was founded in 1999 and has achieved a number of World firsts in software design, gaining strong recognition within the telecom industry. According to Swapcom co-CEOs Olivier Grдeff, Jean-Marc Truong and Philippe Vial-Grelier, “our technology-oriented service offer was a strong plus for Sicap and the acquisition confirms our common ambition to implement high quality, carrier-grade solutions on mobile networks around the world”.

In gaining direct access to markets in Africa and the Middle East through the acquisition, Sicap will build on its strong presence in Europe and Asia Pacific to achieve global footprint status. The combined software offered by Sicap and Swapcom will address a merged portfolio of mobile operators and service providers, including several tier-one operators like Orange , Vodafone, Telenor, O2/Telefonica, Wataniya and T-Mobile.