VAS player, ValueFirst Messaging gained an inorganic competitive advantage with the acquisition of Cellnext Solutions.

“Over the last six years, ValueFirst has been focusing on the enterprise segment. While Cellnext was a competitor as it had a presence in the enterprise market, it also has a good penetration among the telecom operator VAS segment. And since we were also keen to diversify, this acquisition made sense,” ValueFirst CEO Vish Bajaj said.

ValueFirst now aims to operate Cellnext as a separate entity focused on the consumer segment. ValueFirst mainly caters to VAS requirements of the enterprise segment. CellNext also has presence in the enterprise segment but at the same time it has offerings on the content side for service providers as well. It also offers a m-commerce platform.

The acquisition deal saw Equirus Capital serving as sole advisor. The financial details of the deal remain disclosed.

 “Cellnext was a part of the overall game plan of our erstwhile telecom business Escotel. Around five years ago, we decided to focus on our engineering businesses and divested our non-core businesses. However, we had continued to invest in Cellnext which today is a repository of frontline mobile messaging solutions,” Escorts Vice-President (Law & Company Secretary) G B Mathur said.

“The mobile VAS and messaging sector has grown exponentially in the last decade. We believe the sector has matured and it is the right time to consolidate,” Equirus Capital Associate Director Arun Gupta said.