Telefonica To Acquire Jajah For £129 Million

Telefonica Europe has announced it is to acquire VoIP provider Jajah for $207 million (£129 million), in an all-cash deal.

Telefonica also owns the mobile operator O2, and officials said it was adding Jajah’s technology to its portfolio in order to broaden the range of communications services the company can offer. It also “opens up new capabilities in the voice communication space.

“People using social networking sites, such as Twitter, now have an even wider range of communications channels available – and have the option of speaking directly to each other as well as communicating by text or keyboard,” said Matthew Key, chairman and CEO of Telefonica Europe, in a statement.

The deal needs the approval of the CNC, Spain’s competition agency, according to Telefonica.

Officials say Jajah’s IP Communications Platform enables consumers and businesses to communicate via the Internet using any device and any network. Jajah’s services can be found integrated into a range of social media and instant messaging offerings. For example, the company in September announced the beta of its Jajah@call Twitter service, which enables Twitter account holders to make free calls through Twitter.

Jajah’s offerings also can be bought by consumers directly from the company.

According to Telefonica, millions of people use Jajah in about 200 countries.

“This is a very exciting union of a young, innovative company with one of the largest integrated communications companies in the world,” Jajah CEO Trevor Healy said in a statement.

The mobile voice-over-IP market could eventually be a rapidly growing one, but won’t take off for a few more years, according to research company Gartner.

In May, Gartner analysts said the growth of mobile VoIP services eventually will threaten traditional network-based mobile carriers, but it will take time. Mass adoption won’t happen until 4G networks are more completely implemented in 2017.

However, Gartner is predicting that by 2019 more than half of mobile voice traffic will be via VoIP networks.