Ericsson to acquire MC-PTT provider Genaker

As the mission-critical push-to-talk (MC-PTT) market goes through what is regarded by many as a significant technology shift, Ericsson has signed an agreement to acquire all shares in MC-PTT provider Genaker.

Based in Barcelona, Genaker was founded in 2004 and employs around 30 people in providing enterprise services for professionals emulating real-time two-way radio communications using mobile handsets or smartphones.

Traditionally, public safety communications have relied on private land mobile radio (LMR) networks limited to simple push-to-talk (walkie-talkie) functionality. With increasing demand for exchange of other types of data, such as pictures and videos, the legacy LMR networks need to be replaced, and cellular networks have proven to be the best fit for existing and emerging requirements.

Ericsson has a history as a provider of mission-critical push-to-talk over 3GPP technology, and has been driving the standardisation from the start in 3GPP release 12. With the ongoing transformation of public safety communications, new opportunities arise for both telecoms service providers and traditional MC-PTT operators. Ericsson’s MC-PTT system was recently selected by US communications service provider Southern Linc to provide to its utility and public sector entity customers, as well as selected businesses.

Ericsson said it is now taking the next step in its evolution in the area by investing in the MC-PTT applications and clients of Genaker. The acquisition is seen as a building block in Ericsson’s focus on strengthening service providers’ capabilities towards mission-critical users.

“We have worked with Genaker as a partner in mission-critical applications for many years, and we are now taking this step to further strengthen our end-to-end offering,” said Monica Zethzon, head of solution area communication services at Ericsson. “We’re really excited that the Genaker team is joining us and that we can bring the value of their expertise to our customers.”

Genaker co-founder and chief executive officer Miquel Teixidor added: “It is an honour that Genaker becomes the base of Ericsson’s global MC-PTT offering. Together we will leverage the best of the two companies, and we’re excited about this opportunity to offer customers around the world our next-generation MC-PTT solution.”

All Genaker employees will transfer to Ericsson as part of the acquisition.