TCS sells two enterprise units
Maryland-based TeleCommunications Systems (TCS) yesterday announced it has sold two of its three enterprise units and plans to sell the other during the next two months.
Purchased from Aether Systems in 2004, none of the three units typically have been profitable, according to numerous reports, and have been classified as discontinued operations in recent company quarterly reports.
“These are non-core to our strategy moving forward,” said Scott Liolios, an investor-relations spokesperson for TCS. “Our business is secure video and voice data.”
The TCS Mobile Finance unit—both in the U.S. and Europe—has been sold to Stockgroup Information Systems, a financial media company based in Vancouver, in a deal that is expected to close next week. The Mobile office unit, doing business as mobeo, was acquired earlier this month by MobilePro, a Maryland-based broadband telecom services company.
In both of the deals that have been completed, TCS received restricted stock in the purchasing companies with earn-out arrangements if certain benchmarks are reached. No cash was exchanged in either deal, Liolios said. A TCS press release said the company’s decision “to take equity positions in the acquiring companies reflects its expectation that each operation presents opportunities for future growth and profitability.”
Still remaining in TCS is the Mobile Asset Management Division, which provides proof-of-deliver and asset-tracking technology via wireless handheld devices. TCS expects to sell this unit—breakeven to profitable in the fourth quarter of 2006—by the end of the first quarter of this year.