LAS VEGAS - Customer experience systems provider Amdocs announced at CTIA that it has acquired mobile payments and messaging aggregator MX Telecom Ltd. for approximately $104 million.

MX Telecom, which has operations in Europe, the United States and Australia, will become part of Amdocs? OpenMarket, a business of Amdocs that operates a mobile transaction hub. The acquisition is designed to accelerate OpenMarket?s plans for global expansion into key markets.

?One fundamental aspect of the acquisition is that it extends us from a geography perspective?this gets us into Western Europe and other international markets,? said Jay Emmet, general manager of OpenMarket, Seattle. ?Our clients, including many Fortune 500 brands, are demanding international reach, as mobile is transcending borders just like TV and the Internet have done.

?A second important aspect is MX Telecom?s more advanced payment offering,? he said. ?Outside the U.S., the GSM side of the world , most operators have more advanced payment options?the U.K. is one of the strongest countries of the world, and we?ve added advanced features into our product set.

?If you look at how MX has run its business, the payments hub side of it, it?s similar to OpenMarket, so it?s a super fit for us.?

OpenMarket provides a set of payment, messaging and emerging services to meet mobile business needs. OpenMarket claims to provide the most direct carrier connections in the U.S. market.

Amdocs is a global company with revenue of $2.86 billion in fiscal 2009 and serves customers in more than 60 countries.

MX Telecom is a global aggregator providing the connectivity and infrastructure to enable businesses to take advantage of mobile technology, and facilitating payment and digital content delivery.

OpenTelecom
Under the terms of the agreement, Amdocs has acquired MX Telecom for approximately $104 million in cash, net of debt and cash.

The joint OpenMarket-MX Telecom business will provide a hosted platform to extend mobile payment and messaging capabilities through an integrated network and product portfolio. 

The strategy behind the acquisition is to expand OpenMarket?s global footprint and substantially increase its market share in the rapidly growing mobile payments market that will extend well beyond messaging in the coming years.

As a hosted distribution channel for mobile services, OpenMarket enables service providers to efficiently use this channel to monetize emerging mobile services to brands, marketers, enterprises and digital content providers.

?Before we had two clients set, now we have one bigger one?the overlap is insignificant to marginal, and it is our intention to integrate the two companies into one functioning business unit,? Mr. Emmet said. ?Many of our U.S. clients are interested in going international, and many U.K. companies, for example, are interested in exploring the U.S. market.

?Companies that aren?t international today, it is in their plans to pursue it, if not global ubiquity, definitely in all telco developed markets,? he said. ?Fortune 500 companies are keenly interested in complementing whatever business they?re in now with mobile.

?The two key points are a geographical extension and moving up-market on payments and mobile functionality?those are major points of emphasis and justification for the acquisition.?

Here are some photos from the show floor at the Las Vegas Convention Center: