Founding by Jean-Claude Asscher In 1961, Jean-Claude Asscher founded Tekelec-Airtronic, SA, a French electronics company with emphasis on the aviation industry. as a sales office for Tekelec-Airtronic. In March 1998, Michael L. Margolis became CEO. In February 2003, Frederick M. Lax became CEO. Tekelec opened a subsidiary in India in 2004. At the time, Tekelec remained based in Calabasas, California under CEO Fred Lax. Lax said that Taqua's focus on small
Class 5 switches would complement Tekelec's business in Santera Class 4 packet switch businesses. In August 2005, Tekelec agreed to buy Steleus Group for $65 million. The deal added switches to Tekelec's product offerings.
Ronald J. de Lange Ronald J. de Lange joined Tekelec in July 2005 and served as executive vice president Global Business Solutions before being promoted to CEO in May 2011. On August 3, 2005, Tekelec purchased German and
Czech-based iptelorg GmbH, developer of leading-edge
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) routing software, securing a critical
IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) capability for Tekelec.
Franco (Frank) Plastina Franco Plastina joined Tekelec as president and CEO and as a director in February 2006, taking over from former CEO Fred Lax. Lax had resigned in January 2006, when Tekelec relocated its headquarters from California to Cary. Plastina stepped down from his position as President and CEO of Tekelec in January 2011 following poor results where sales of the main product line, Eagle, dropped off much more sharply than expected, before replacement products (such as policy) became fully available. Krish Prabhu, a member of the Board of Directors, was appointed Interim President and CEO. In April 2006, Tekelec sold its subsidiary IEX Corporation for $200 million. December 17, 2008: Tekelec acquired mBalance, a Netherlands-based developer of mobile messaging solutions, for US$38 million. In May 2011, about 65% of staff were laid off and over the following year most of the remainder departed, being replaced by contractors; the company has since been resold. In early May 2010, Tekelec acquired the company Camiant and the subscriber data management (SDM) company Blueslice Networks. Frank Plastine was Tekelec's CEO at the time.
Shareholder class action lawsuit On January 6, 2011 a
securities fraud class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of Tekelec investors. The lawsuit alleges that Tekelec misled the investing public about its business dealings in emerging markets (namely India), thereby inflating the price of TKLC stock. The lawsuit claims that these misleading statements made by Tekelec amount to a violation of US securities laws, and caused significant financial losses to holders of Tekelec stock. The share price in Q4 2010 ran at about 18 dollars. By the start of Q2 2011, the share price ran at about 7.75 dollars. In November 2011, investors led by Siris Capital Group agreed to buy Tekelec for $780 million, making the company private. At the time, Tekelec was based in
Morrisville, North Carolina, with CEO Ron de Lange. On January 27, 2012, Tekelec announced the completion of its acquisition by a
consortium led by Siris Capital Group, LLC ("Siris") and including affiliates of The ComVest Group, funds and accounts managed by GSO Capital Partners LP, Sankaty Advisors LLC, ZelnickMedia and other Siris limited partners and affiliates, in a transaction valued at approximately $780 million.
Acquisition by Oracle On March 25, 2013,
Oracle announced that it had entered into an agreement to acquire Tekelec. Tekelec joined the Oracle Communications unit. ==Recognition==