Tekelec

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title: "Tekelec" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1971-establishments-in-california", "2013-disestablishments-in-north-carolina", "2013-mergers-and-acquisitions", "american-companies-established-in-1971", "american-companies-disestablished-in-2013", "companies-formerly-listed-on-the-nasdaq", "computer-companies-established-in-1971", "computer-companies-disestablished-in-2013", "defunct-companies-based-in-north-carolina", "defunct-computer-companies-of-the-united-states", "defunct-computer-hardware-companies", "oracle-acquisitions", "telecommunications-equipment-vendors", "defunct-computer-companies-based-in-california"] topic_path: "engineering" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tekelec" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox company"]

Field	Value
name	Tekelec, Inc.
logo	Tekelec logo 2010.svg
type	Public
industry	telecommunication-equipment manufacturing
foundation	Calabasas, California (1971)
location	Morrisville, North Carolina
key_people	Philip Black, President and CEO
Michael Leigh, COO and Vice President Sales & Marketing
Joseph Noble, Vice President-Sales
Hubert de Pesquidoux, Chairman
Ronald J. de Lange, President and CEO
Gregory Rush, Senior Vice President, CFO
num_employees	1140 (2012)
products	Chameleon 32 Protocol Simulator/Analyzer, Session Management, Diameter Signaling Router, Policy Management, Subscriber Data Management, Performance Intelligence Center, Mobile Messaging
homepage
::

| name = Tekelec, Inc. | logo = Tekelec logo 2010.svg | type = Public | industry = telecommunication-equipment manufacturing | foundation = Calabasas, California (1971) | location = Morrisville, North Carolina | key_people = Philip Black, President and CEO Michael Leigh, COO and Vice President Sales & Marketing Joseph Noble, Vice President-Sales Hubert de Pesquidoux, Chairman Ronald J. de Lange, President and CEO Gregory Rush, Senior Vice President, CFO | num_employees = 1140 (2012) | products = Chameleon 32 Protocol Simulator/Analyzer, Session Management, Diameter Signaling Router, Policy Management, Subscriber Data Management, Performance Intelligence Center, Mobile Messaging | homepage =

Tekelec, Inc. was a Morrisville, North Carolina–based telecommunications company. It developed hardware and software for networks that are fixed, wireless, or packet-based. It provided IP services to help mobile carriers with network signaling, policy control, and subscriber data management.

The company, founded in Calabasas, California, in 1971, was acquired by Oracle in 2013, from Siris Capital Group.

Corporate history

Founding by Jean-Claude Asscher

In 1961, Jean-Claude Asscher founded Tekelec-Airtronic, SA, a French electronics company with emphasis on the aviation industry.

In 1977, Tekelec, Inc. was founded{{Citation | title =Tekelec | newspaper =Bloomberg | url =https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=307400

For many years, Jean-Claude Asscher was president, CEO, and chairman of the board of directors of both Tekelec-Airtronic and Tekelec. In recent years Jean-Claude Asscher has served as only chairman of Tekelec's board of directors while continuing to be the president of Tekelec-Airtronic's board of directors as well as its chairman. Tekelec, Inc.’s IPO was in May 1986 on NASDAQ under the symbol TKLC. CEO Phillip Black, COO Michael Leigh, CFO Phillip Alford.

Philip Black spinoff and going public

Asscher found Philip Black, in the early 1980s, who was tasked with re-creating the U.S Tekelec company so that could successfully sell Tekelec Airtronic products in the U.S., or create their own testing products. Philip Black assembled a core crew of people, and his team created, marketed and sold the protocol simulator analyzers, named Chameleon and Chameleon II which fueled the sales of Tekelec for over 10 years. Tekelec successfully competed with two pre-existing competitors, Atlantic Research and Idacom, to become the dominant player in this specific type of test equipment. The company went public in the mid-1980s. Tekelec later transitioned to operating equipment in the form of Signalling System 7 products, under the initial lead of Peter Vicars, who followed Philip Black as CEO.

In 1985, Tekelec established a subsidiary in Tokyo, Japan. In 1986 the company went public.

Peter N Vicars as CEO

Peter N Vicars joined Tekelec and served as its President and Chief Executive Officer from July 1987 until January 1994. During this tenure revenues increased from $13M to $58M while maintaining six years of double-digit profitability within its core business of testing solutions which represented 85% of corporate revenues. Vicars acquired and integrated a leading SS7 company (Protocol Technologies) to strengthen Tekelec's market position in cellular and switching technology. Based on that acquisition, Vicars guided the entry into a new market for the corporation. The Eagle platform and revenues grew to $12 million over the first year of product shipments. Vicars is also credited for implementing an expense reduction program, due to the switching product startup development and initial market entry costs, which returned the corporation to profitability.

In March 1992, the company created the subsidiary Tekelec Canada.{{Citation | last =Sylvester | first =Ted | date = 2006 | title =Tekelec | magazine = International Directory of Company Histories | publisher = Thomson Gale | url =https://www.encyclopedia.com/books/politics-and-business-magazines/tekelec

In March 1998, Michael L. Margolis became CEO.

In 2001, T-Mobile Germany signed a deal with Tekelec.{{Citation | date = November 30, 2001 | title =T-Mobile Germany signs deal with Tekelec to upgrade its signaling network | newspaper =European Communications | url =https://www.eurocomms.com/industry-news/5193-2036

In February 2003, Frederick M. Lax became CEO.

In May 2003, Tekelec said it would buy a controlling share of Santera, therefore creating a subsidiary to sell products such as softswitches, media gateways, and signaling gateways.{{Citation | last =Greene | first =Tim | date = May 7, 2003 | title =Tekelec absorbs Santera | magazine = Network World | url =https://www.networkworld.com/article/2341958/lan-wan/tekelec-absorbs-santera.html | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20180519084739/https://www.networkworld.com/article/2341958/lan-wan/tekelec-absorbs-santera.html | url-status =dead | archive-date =May 19, 2018

Tekelec opened a subsidiary in India in 2004.

In 2004, Tekelec acquired the softswitch company Taqua Systems in Richardson, Texas for $85 million in cash.{{Citation | date = February 26, 2004 | title =Telecommunications: Tekelec To Acquire Taqua For $85 Million | publisher = Bloomberg News | url =https://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/26/business/technology-briefing-telecommunications-tekelec-to-acquire-taqua-for-85-million.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FTekelec&action=click&contentCollection=business&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=collection | date = February 26, 2004 | title =Tekelec buys softswitch specialist Taqua | newspaper =EETimes | url =https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1207085

In August 2005, Tekelec agreed to buy Steleus Group for $65 million. The deal added switches to Tekelec's product offerings.{{Citation | date = August 21, 2004 | title =COMPANY NEWS; TEKELEC TO BUY STELEUS GROUP FOR $56 MILLION | newspaper =The New York Times | url =https://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/21/business/company-news-tekelec-to-buy-steleus-group-for-56-million.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FTekelec&action=click&contentCollection=business&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection

Ronald J. de Lange

Ronald J. de Lange joined Tekelec in July 2005 and served as executive vice president Global Business Solutions before being promoted to CEO in May 2011.

On August 3, 2005, Tekelec purchased German and Czech-based iptelorg GmbH, developer of leading-edge Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) routing software, securing a critical IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) capability for Tekelec.

Franco (Frank) Plastina

Franco Plastina joined Tekelec as president and CEO and as a director in February 2006, taking over from former CEO Fred Lax. Lax had resigned in January 2006, when Tekelec relocated its headquarters from California to Cary.{{Citation | date = January 23, 2006 | title =Former Nortel Exec To Take Over as CEO of Tekelec | newspaper =WRAL | publisher = Capital Broadcasting | url =https://www.wral.com/news/local/story/139267/

Acquisitions

In 2008, Tekelec's number portability solution was deployed in carriers serving 750 million subscribers, out of more than two billion global subscribers who had number porting capability and as of March 2009, Tekelec had 79 number portability customers in 28 countries, and most recently announced delivery of number portability solutions to T-Mobile Germany.

On February 5, 2008, Tekelec acquired substantially all of the assets of Estacado Systems, LLC, a software development company led by a team that has been instrumental in the creation of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and a number of its advanced features.{{Citation | date = February 6, 2008 | title =Estacado Systems Acquired By Tekelec | newspaper =Texas TechPulse | url =http://www.texastechpulse.com/estacado_systems_acquired_by_tekelec/s-0013600.html

December 17, 2008: Tekelec acquired mBalance, a Netherlands-based developer of mobile messaging solutions, for US$38 million. In May 2011, about 65% of staff were laid off and over the following year most of the remainder departed, being replaced by contractors; the company has since been resold.

In early May 2010, Tekelec acquired the company Camiant and the subscriber data management (SDM) company Blueslice Networks. Frank Plastine was Tekelec's CEO at the time.{{Citation | last =Spangler | first =Todd | date = May 9, 2010 | title =Tekelec Acquires Camiant For $130 Million | publisher = Multichannel | url =https://www.multichannel.com/news/tekelec-acquires-camiant-130-million-258441

Shareholder class action lawsuit

On January 6, 2011 a securities fraud class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of Tekelec investors. The lawsuit alleges that Tekelec misled the investing public about its business dealings in emerging markets (namely India), thereby inflating the price of TKLC stock. The lawsuit claims that these misleading statements made by Tekelec amount to a violation of US securities laws, and caused significant financial losses to holders of Tekelec stock.

The share price in Q4 2010 ran at about 18 dollars. By the start of Q2 2011, the share price ran at about 7.75 dollars. In November 2011, investors led by Siris Capital Group agreed to buy Tekelec for $780 million, making the company private.{{Citation | last =Savitz | first =Eric | date = November 7, 2011 | title =Tekelec To Go Private In $11/Shr LBO Led By Siris Capital | newspaper =Forbes | url =https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsavitz/2011/11/07/tekelec-to-go-private-in-11shr-lbo-led-by-siris-capital/#55fb987d30c8 | last =Thomson | first =Amy | date = November 7, 2011 | title =SAC Capital spinoff buys Tekelec for $780 million | newspaper =Stamford Advocate | url =https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/SAC-Capital-spinoff-buys-Tekelec-for-780-million-2257265.php

Acquisition by Oracle

On March 25, 2013, Oracle announced that it had entered into an agreement to acquire Tekelec.{{Citation | last =Clark | first =Jack | date = March 25, 2013 | title =Oracle grabs Tekelec for telco assault | newspaper =The Register | url =https://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/03/25/oracle_tekelec_acquisition/ | last =FitzGerald | first =Drew | date = March 25, 2013 | title =Oracle Expands Telecom Footprint With Tekelec Buy | newspaper =The Wall Street Journal | url =https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324105204578382661746936242 | last =Ludwig | first =Sean | date = March 25, 2013 | title =Oracle continues acquisition spree, gobbles up network management biz Tekelec | newspaper =VentureBeat | url =https://venturebeat.com/2013/03/25/oracle-buys-tekelec/

Recognition

In March 2011, Tekelec's Diameter Signaling Router was recognized by the Frost & Sullivan "New Product Innovation Award, Diameter Routing" for its superior ability to help operators overcome Diameter signaling challenges in LTE networks. Frost & Sullivan independently identified Diameter Routing as a new award category due to at least 60 LTE networks anticipated to be in commercial service by the end of 2012, creating "rapid uptake in Diameter signaling."

In October 2010, it was announced that MetroPCS selected Tekelec's Diameter Signaling Router for deployment in the first U.S. LTE network.{{Citation | date = 2013 | title =Oracle Buys Tekelec | publisher = Oracle | url =http://www.tekelec.com/news-&-events/prDetail.asp?prID=888

In June 2012, Tekelec was awarded Most Innovative Company by Pipeline Publishing's Innovation Awards. A panel of service providers and industry analysts selected Tekelec as the company that best embraces and promotes innovation throughout its organization.{{Citation | date = 2013 | title =Oracle Buys Tekelec | publisher = Oracle | url =http://www.tekelec.com/news-&-events/prDetail.asp?prID=987

Industry research and consultancy firm Analysys Mason named Tekelec as the global market leader with 35 percent market share of real-time connection number portability solutions.

References

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