Founding iconectiv was established on October 20, 1983, as Central Services Organization as part of the 1982
Modification of Final Judgment that broke up the
Bell System. It later received the name Bell Communications Research. Nicknamed
Bellcore, it was a consortium established by the
Regional Holding Companies upon their separation from AT&T. Since AT&T retained
Bell Laboratories, the operating companies desired a separate research and development facility. Bellcore, the
tenth company to register an Internet domain name in
comTLD, provided joint research and development, was involved in standards setting, training, and centralized government point-of-contact functions for its co-owners, the seven Regional Holding Companies that were themselves divested from AT&T as holding companies for the 22 local Bell Operating Companies. Bellcore's initial staff and corporate culture were drawn from the nearby Bell Laboratories locations in northern New Jersey, plus additional staff from AT&T and regional operating companies. The company originally had its headquarters in
Livingston with dedication by
New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean in 1985, but moved its headquarters to
Morristown a decade later. Bellcore also operated the former Bell System Center for Technical Education in
Lisle, Illinois.
Separation from the Baby Bells In 1996, the company was provisionally acquired by
Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). The sale was closed one year later, following a regulatory approval process that covered every U.S. state individually. Since the divested company no longer had any ownership connection with the
Regional Bell Operating Companies (
Baby Bells), the name was changed to
Telcordia Technologies in 1999. The headquarters was moved to
Piscataway, New Jersey. The former headquarters campus in Morristown and its offices and laboratories in Red Bank, New Jersey, are former Bell Labs locations that were transferred to Telcordia. Equal stakes in the company were sold in March 2005 to
Providence Equity Partners and
Warburg Pincus.
Acquisition by Ericsson On June 14, 2011,
Ericsson announced an agreement to acquire Telcordia for $1.15 billion. On January 12, 2012, Telcordia became a wholly owned subsidiary of Ericsson. On June 15, 2011, Ericsson announced the completion of the purchase from
private-equity firms
Providence Equity Partners and
Warburg Pincus, with the goal to pursue industry trends that include
mobile broadband,
managed services/
outsourcing and global
OSS/
BSS transformation. The acquisition, which officially closed on January 12, 2012, added about 2,600 employees to Ericsson's staff. On June 4, 2012, Telcordia and its products were officially
rebranded as Ericsson. In the process of integration, Telcordia's Advanced Technology Solutions business unit, the company's research arm, was rebranded as
Applied Communication Sciences, and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Ericsson that operated independently on day-to-day operations pursuant to a proxy structure mandated by the U.S. government. In February 2013, Ericsson launched
iconectiv for its interconnection business. During this time, Ericsson maintained its corporate presence in
Plano, Texas and iconectiv's corporate presence in New Jersey. In July 2017, iconectiv moved its headquarters from
Piscataway to
Bridgewater,
New Jersey. In August 2024, Ericsson announced a sale of iconectiv to Koch Equity for $1 billion. This transaction was completed a year later.
Francisco Partners investment On August 10, 2017, Francisco Partners announced a $200 million investment in iconectiv and received a 16.7 percent ownership stake in the company. In 2025, when Ericsson sold the company, FP also did the same with its equity stake. ==Notable clients==