By Natasha Lomas
Friday, January 04 2008 10:48 AM
URL: http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/communications/0,39044192,62036014,00.htm

Nokia Siemens Networks is to buy Apertio--a U.K. data platform and apps provider for telecoms operators--for 140 million euros (US$206.3 million).

Apertio, which has 237 employees and numbers O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone among its customers, provides network infrastructure software aimed at enabling mobile, fixed and converged telecommunications operators to improve access to customer data and thereby streamline the delivery of current and next generation services.

Jürgen Walter, head of Nokia Siemens Networks' converged core business unit, said mobile operators are racing to deliver "seamless and highly targeted services to end users across various access devices", adding that this requires "a unified approach to subscriber data".

Walter said in a statement: "Enabling access to this information in real-time means you can profile subscribers and deliver new services and advertising appropriately. Market entrants from the Internet world that are used to using real-time profiling are starting to play in the telecoms space and operators need to enable a personalized experience."

The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of next year. The acquisition builds on a pre-existing partnership between Apertio and Nokia.

Natasha Lomas of Silicon.com reported from London.