Telcordia Technologies Inc. will today announce that it has been sold by its parent, Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), so ending a divestment saga that began in July (see SAIC May Sell Telcordia).

Although no details have been confirmed, it's expected that Warburg Pincus and Providence Equity Partners will jointly pay about $1.3 billion for the OSS giant (see Telcordia About to Be Sold).

SAIC acquired Telcordia, formerly known as Bellcore, in 1997 for about $700 million.

The buyout firms will take on board a company with about 3,500 staff and quarterly revenues of more than $200 million. In SAIC's most recent financial statement, it said Telcordia generated $217 million, and an operating profit of $48 million, in the three months to July 31 2004.

At that rate, Telcordia is on course for annual revenues of about $880 million, putting the vendor's price tag at about 1.5 times revenues, in line with many acquisitions in the OSS market this year.

Those quarterly revenues are declining, however. Even though revenues from inventory systems vendor Granite Systems, acquired in May (see Telcordia Shells Out at Last), were included in the three months to July 31, that $217 million was still down from $223 million a year earlier.

SAIC noted that Telcordia's main customers, the RBOCs, have been squeezing down the prices for their maintenance contracts.

But Telcordia does seem to have gained greater control over its costs, and SAIC also noted that "based on the current level of backlog and contract outlook for 2005, it appears that our [Telcordia] segment revenues are beginning to stabilize."

The new owners will also doubtless be aware of the not insignificant baggage that comes with Telcordia, including lawsuits and a far from happy workforce (see Telcordia Prepares for Court, Telcordia Sues Alcatel, Cisco, Lucent, and Inside Telcordia's Discord ).

— Ray Le Maistre, International News Editor, Light Reading