Anti-money laundering vendor Mantas is merging with Sotas, a provider of analytical solutions to the telecoms industry, in a deal directed by private equity outfit Safeguard Scientifics, which is pumping an additional $14 million into the combined entity.
Mantas, based in Fairfax, Va., provides enterprise-wide anti-money laundering, surveillance and trading compliance software for more than a dozen of the world's largest financial institutions including Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and ABN Amro. Sotas, based in Gaithersburg, Md., provides decision support solutions to several global fixed line and mobile communications service providers including Verizon, Cavalier Telephone, Maxcom, and Telus.
The existing Mantas management team led by CEO Simon Moss will continue to lead the combined company under the Mantas name. Several Sotas executives will join the Mantas organisation in support of the telecommunications market.
Dan Baker, research director of Technology Research Institute, an analyst firm that tracks telecom revenue assurance and analytics markets, welcomes the deal: "The crossover of telecom and financial markets will bring all sorts of micro-payment and IP content settlement issues to the fore. The new, merged company is uniquely positioned to build software for this emerging 'telefinance' world."