Aricent

Aricent/Altran Americas

Company type	Defunct Company (acquired by Altran)
Industry	R&D Services
Founded	1985 (founding of Future Software Communications); 1991 (founding of Hughes Software Systems); merged after acquisition in 2004.
Defunct	2019
Headquarters	Santa Clara, California and later New York, New York (USA) Gurgaon, Haryana (India)
Products	Product and service engineering (largely digital and software products and services)
Number of employees	10,000 [1]

Aricent was a global design and engineering services company. It was acquired by French-based company Altran in 2018 and renamed Altran North America in April 2019 ^[2] and Altran Americas in early 2020. With Altran's acquisition by Capgemini, the successors of Aricent are incorporated into Capgemini Engineering and to a lesser extent, Capgemini Invent.

Aricent was best known for developing telecom software which is used by telecom giants such as Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks, Nokia Networks, Oracle, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, and Nortel.

History

Aricent is the successor to Hughes Software Systems, which was established in 1991, as a subsidiary of Hughes Electronics, ^[3] with funding from Sequoia Capital. ^{[4] [5]}

• 1985: Future Software Communications founded by KV Ramani, a TCP/IP stack developer from India which will eventually merge with Hughes Software Systems. ^[6]
• 1991: Hughes Software Systems (HSS) founded by KV Ramani in Nehru Place, New Delhi to develop software solutions in the areas of VSAT-based networks for voice and data, cellular wireless telephony, packet switching, and multi-protocol routing. Pioneered the development of Protocol Stacks. ^[7]
• 2004: Flextronics bought HSS to form Flextronics Software Systems and merged with Future Software headquartered. ^[8] Acquired Frog Design for approximately $25 million. ^[9]
• 2005: Expanded development operations in Kyiv, Kherson and Vinnytsia in Ukraine; Randburg, South Africa; and Beijing, China. Was delisted from India's stock market in preparation for sale.
• 2006: Was acquired by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Sequoia Capital as part of a $900 million sales of software companies. ^[4] The transaction represented the largest private equity buy-out in Indian history. ^[10]
• 2007: Acquired Datalinx; launched service provider offerings. ^[11]
• 2008: The Family Office, a multi-family office company with headquarters in Bahrain also joined in funding Aricent. ^[12]
• 2011: Rebranded to Aricent Group. ^[13]
• 2011: Opened engineering and development center for testing and wireless technologies in Vietnam ^[14]
• 2013: Rebranded to Aricent.
• 2015: Acquired SmartPlay Technologies, a semiconductor service based firm for $180 million. As part of the deal, SmartPlay's 1,200-plus staff joined Aricent's staff.
• 2018: Altran acquired Aricent, ^{[15] [16]} with Aricent operating as Altran North America in the Americas;
• 2019: Capgemini announced plans to acquire Altran Group ^[17]
• 2020: Capgemini acquired Altran Group in April, with the majority of Altran staff (including most former Aricent employees) incorporated into Capgemini Engineering. Frog incorporated into Capgemini Invent.

See also

• Fortune India 500
• Frog Design
• List of companies of India
• Tanla Platforms
• Route Mobile

References

1. "About Us". Aricent. Archived from the original on 2016-03-07. Retrieved 2016-05-28.
2. "About Us". Aricent. 27 February 2016. Archived from the original on 28 January 2019. Retrieved May 28, 2016.
3. "KKR Current Investments". KKR. Archived from the original on 2006-08-25. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
4. "Aricent - Sequoia Capital". Sequoia Capital. Archived from the original on 10 November 2006. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
5. "Aricent Debuts As Communications Software Pure Play". KKR. Archived from the original on 2006-10-31. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
6. "KV Ramani".
7. "Flextronics takes over FutureSoft". The Hindu . 27 August 2004. Archived from the original on 18 January 2015.
8. "KV Ramani, Founder, Future Software Pvt Ltd and Ex Chairman, NASSCOM on 'Entrepreneurship and successful business models'". Great Lakes Institute of Management. 24 June 2010.
9. "One Great Leap for Frog Design". BusinessWeek. Archived from the original on April 21, 2006. Retrieved 2010-03-04.
10. "Buyout deal by KKR is India's largest ever". International Herald Tribune. Archived from the original on 24 October 2006. Retrieved 2006-10-31.
11. "Aricent buys US firm in global market quest". Hindustan Times. 13 September 2007.^{[ dead link ]}
12. "Aricent Announces New Funding from KKR and The Family Office". Aricent. Archived from the original on 9 October 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-23.
13. "Rebranded to Aricent Group". Aricent. Retrieved 2011-05-21.
14. "Aricent opens software center in town - Aricent opens software center in town". Saigon Times. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-05-06.
15. "With completion of Aricent acquisition, Altran assumes global leadership in Engineering and R&D Services".
16. PM, Indulal. "KKR seeks to log out from Aricent, its oldest investment in India". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2022-03-16.
17. "Capgemini plans to acquire Altran for 3.6 billion euros". Reuters. 24 June 2019. Archived from the original on November 28, 2020.